131 Mass. 577 | Mass. | 1881
The indictment charges a joint act by both defendants, constituting a crime in each. It is the common case of different defendants jointly indicted for a crime which may be committed by one alone. The charge is several as well as joint, and one defendant can be convicted upon proof of a several act by him. Such indictments must be construed as if they contained the allegations that the acts constituting the offence, and charged to have been done by the defendants jointly, were also done by each defendant separately. In accordance with that construction, the indictment in this case includes the allegations- that each of, the defendants committed the crime by each having carnal knowledge of the body of the other. Commonwealth v. Elwell, 2 Met. 190. Commonwealth v. Griffin, 3 Cush. 523. Commonwealth v. Slate, 11 Gray, 60. Commonwealth v. Cook, 12 Allen, 542. When a crime charged is one which consists in the concurrent act of two or more, such as conspiracy, such joint action must be alleged and proved. But adultery is not such a crime. One person may be alone guilty of it. The act of sexual intercourse by a married man with an unmarried woman, or by an unmarried man with a married woman, is adultery in the man without regard to the guilt of the woman.
Exceptions overruled.