Kehoe

The defendant was convicted of the crime of seduction under promise of marriage, and appeals from the judgment and from an order denying him a new trial. The sections of the Penal Code bearing upon the offense are the following:

Defendant and the girl with whose seduction he was charged were both school children, and about the same age. At the time of the seduction, and of the first act of sexual intercourse, each was about sixteen years old. The girl testified that she submitted to his embraces under his promise to marry her “when he was old enough” and “when they were old enough.” She says: “There was no time ever set when we were to be married, only after he became of age and became old enough to be married we would be. I didn’t know whether we would be married in one year or two years or three years or five years. I knew when he would become of age.” The girl’s evidence, if believed by the jury, was sufficient to support the conviction. It proved the promise and her reliance upon it in submitting herself to the defendant’s desires.

But it is very earnestly pressed upon the consideration of this court that the defendant, under the facts, does not come within the purview of…