105 Kan. 9 | Kan. | 1919
The opinion of the court was delivered by
B. J. Patterson and J. A. Gregoire were convicted of manslaughter in the fourth and first degrees, respectively, and appeal. The defendants are physicians, and the
Floris was married October 12, 1916. Her husband deserted her November 10. On December 6, 1916, she left her home at Forgan, Okla., with her mother, and went to Pratt, Kan., where she put herself in the hands of the defendants. An operation of some character was performed on her by them December 8. She died December 20. Her mother testified that her menstruation had ceased in November; that she had morning sickness; that her face was full and her breasts enlarging — that she had the usual symptoms of pregnancy. The further statement that her daughter had said she was pregnant added nothing material to this. Matters had not progressed far enough so that the daughter could be sure of her condition — she could merely give her opinion. There was a direct issue of veracity between the state’s witnesses and the defendants’ on the subject. If the mother’s •story of the proceedings at the hospital was true, her daughter was pregnant, and the defendants discussed the matter with her on that basis.
If incompetent evidence was admitted to the effect that Floris had said that she was pregnant and was going to the defendants on that account, it was not prejudicial, because that fact was as consistent with the story told by the defendants as with the theory of the prosecution. Their own version of the affair was that, while Floris was really suffering from gonox-rhcea, and knew it, she had led her mother and neighbors to believe that she was pregnant, and that she was going to Pratt to see the defendants on that account, her purpose being to conceal the fact that she had a. venex-eal disease. The defendants’ testimony was to the effect that the mother supposed her daughter to be pregnant until the day of the operation — that her daughter had said that she did not want her mother to know that she had gonorrhoea — that “the people at Forgan thought she was in a family way and her mother knew no difference.” On cross-examination of Floris’ father,
The judgment is affirmed.