CHAPTER VIII.

FALSE IMPRISONMENT.

§ 236. False imprisonment defined.

§ 237. False imprisonment, how punished.

§ 236. FALSE IMPRISONMENT DEFINED. False imprisonment is the unlawful violation of the personal liberty of another.

Enacted February 14, 1872, founded on § 52 Criminal Practice Act, Stats. 1850, p. 234. As to being misdemeanor to recommit prisoner discharged upon writ of habeas corpus, see post, § 363.

§ 237. FALSE IMPRISONMENT, HOW PUNISHED. False imprisonment is punishable by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not more than one year, or by both. If such false imprisonment be effected by violence, menace, fraud, or deceit, it shall be punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than one nor more than ten years.

Enacted February 14, 1872; amendment approved February 27, 1901, Stats, and Amdts.

1900-1, p. 53, by adding the last sentence.

§ 240. ASSAULT DEFINED. An assault is an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on the person of another.

Enacted February 14, 1872, founded on § 49 Criminal Practice Act (Stats. 1850, p. 234), as amended April 19, 1856, Stats. 1856, p. 220.

§ 241. ASSAULT, HOW PUNISHED. An assault is punishable by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months, or by both.

Enacted February 14, 1872; amendment approved April 6, 1911, Stats. and Amdts. 1911, p. 687.

As to assault by life convict being punishable with death, see post, § 245.

As to assault to murder, see ante, § 217.

As to assault to rape, see ante, § 220.

As to assault to rob, see ante, § 220.

As to assault with caustic chemicals, see post, § 244.

As to assault with deadly weapon, see post, § 245.

As to Jurisdiction of police court over assaults committed within municipalities, see Kerr's Small Pol. Code, § 4426.

§ 242. BATTERY DEFINED. A battery is any wilful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another.

Enacted February 14, 1872, founded on § 51 Criminal Practice Act, Stats. 1850, p. 234.

§ 243. BATTERY, HOW PUNISHED. A battery is punishable by fine of not exceeding one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months, or by both.

Enacted February 14, 1872, founded on § 51 Criminal Practice Act, Stats. 1850, p. 234; amendment approved March 30, 1874, Code Amdts. 1873-4, p. 428; March 21, 1876, Code Amdts. 1875-6, p. 110; February 26, 1881, Stats. and Amdts. 1881, p. 11.

§ 244. ASSAULTS WITH CAUSTIC CHEMICALS. Every person who wilfully and maliciously places or throws, or causes to be placed or thrown, upon the person of another, any vitriol, corrosive acid, or caustic chemical of any nature, with the intent to injure the flesh or disfigure the body of such person, is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison not less than one nor more than fourteen years.

Enacted February 14, 1872, founded on § 1 Act March 19, 1868, Stats. 1868, p. 194.

§ 245. ASSAULTS WITH DEADLY WEAPONS. Every person who commits an assault upon the person of another with a deadly weapon or instrument, or by any means or force likely to produce great bodily injury, is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison, or in a county jail, not exceeding ten years, or by fine not exceeding five thousand dollars or by both.

Enacted February 14, 1872, founded on § 50 Criminal Practice Act, Stats. 1850, p. 234; amendment approved March 30, 1874, Code Amdts. 1873-4, p. 428; May 12, 1921, Stats. and Amdts. 1921, p. 86.

§ 246. ASSAULT BY LIFE CONVICT, PENALTY. Every person undergoing a life sentence in a state prison of this state, who, with malice aforethought, commits an assault upon the person of another with a deadly weapon or instrument, or by any means or force likely to produce great bodily injury, is punishable with death.

Enactment approved February 14, 1901, Stats. and Amdts. 1900-1, p. 6.

§ 248. LIBEL DEFINED. A libel is a malicious defamation, expressed either by writing, printing, or by signs or pictures, or the like, tending to blacken the memory of one who is dead, or to impeach the honesty, integrity, virtue, or reputation, or publish the natural or alleged defects of one who is alive, and thereby to expose him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule.

Enacted February 14, 1872, founded on § 120 Criminal Practice Act, Stats. 1850, p. 244; amendment approved March 30, 1874, Code Amdts. 1873-4, p. 429. As to definition of libel, see Kerr's Small C. C., § 45.

§ 249. PUNISHMENT OF LIBEL. Every person who wilfully, and with a malicious intent to injure another, publishes or procures to be published any libel, is punishable by fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year.

Enacted February 14, 1872, founded on § 120 Criminal Practice Act, Stats. 1850, p. 244.
As to place of trial of prosecution for libel, see Const. 1879, Art. 1, § 9.

§ 250. MALICE PRESUMED. An injurious publication is presumed to have been malicious if no justifiable motive for making it is shown.

§ 251. TRUTH MAY BE GIVEN IN EVIDENCE. JURY TO DETERMINE LAW AND FACT. In all criminal prosecutions for libel, the truth may be given in evidence to the jury, and if it appears to the jury that the matter charged as libelous is true, and was published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted. The jury have the right to determine the law and the fact.

Enacted February 14, 1872, founded on § 120 Criminal Practice Act, Stats. 1850, p. 244. As to giving truth in evidence to jury in prosecutions for libel, see Const. 1879, Art. I, § 9. As to province of Jury to determine law and fact in prosecution for libel, see post, § 1125; Const. 1879, Art. I, § 9.

§ 252. PUBLICATION DEFINED. To sustain a charge of publishing a libel, it is not needful that the words or things complained of should have been read or seen by another. It is enough that the accused knowingly parted with the immediate custody of the libel under circumstances which exposed it to be read or seen by any other person than himself.

Enacted February 14, 1872.

§ 253. LIABILITY OF EDITORS AND PUBLISHERS. Each author, editor, and proprietor of any book, newspaper, or serial publication, is chargeable with the pub

lication of any words contained in any part of such book, or number of such newspaper or serial.

Enacted February 14, 1872.

§ 254. PUBLISHING A TRUÊ REPORT OF PUBLIC OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS PRIVILEGED. No reporter, editor, or proprietor of any newspaper is liable to any prosecution for a fair and true report of any judicial, legislative, or other public official proceedings, or of any statement, speech, argument, or debate in the course of the same, except upon proof of malice in making such report, which shall not be implied from the mere fact of publication.

Enacted February 14, 1872.

§ 255. EXTENT OF PRIVILEGE. Libelous remarks or comments connected with matter privileged by the last section receive no privilege by reason of their being so connected.

Enacted February 14, 1872.

§ 256. OTHER PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATIONS. A communication made to a person interested in the communication, by one who was also interested or who stood in such relation to the former as to afford a reasonable ground for supposing his motive innocent, is not presumed to be malicious, and is a privileged communication.

§ 257. THREATENING TO PUBLISH LIBEL. OFFER TO PREVENT PUBLICATION, WITH INTENT TO EXTORT MONEY. Every person who threatens another to publish a libel concerning him, or any parent, husband, wife, or child of such person, or member of his family, and every person who offers to prevent the publication of any libel upon another person, with intent to extort any money or other valuable consideration from any person, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Enacted February 14, 1872.

§ 258. PUBLISHING OF CARICATURES and CARTOONS UNLAWFUL. PENALTY. LIABILITY ATTACHES TO WHOM. [Repealed.]

Enacted February 23, 1899, Stats. and Amdts. 1899, p. 28; repeal approved May 22, 1915, Stats. and Amdts. 1915, p. 761. In effect August 8, 1915.

§ 259. NEWSPAPER ARTICLES OF PERSONAL CHARACTER MUST BE SIGNED. PENALTY FOR VIOLATION. NAME OF AUTHOR OF BOOK OR NEWS AGENCY SUFFICIENT. [Repealed.]

Enacted March 20, 1899, Stats. and Amdts. 1899, pp. 155, 156; repeal approved April 24, 1917, Stats, and Amdts. 1917, p. 174.

TITLE IX.

OF CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON AND AGAINST PUBLIC DECENCY AND

GOOD MORALS.

Chapter I. Rape, Abduction, Carnal Abuse of Children, and Seduction, §§ 261-269b. II. Abandonment and Neglect of Children, §§ 270-273h.

III. Abortions, §§ 274, 275.

IV. Child-Stealing, § 278.

V. Bigamy, Incest, and the Crime Against Nature, §§ 281-288a.

VI. Violating Sepulture and the Remains of the Dead, §§ 290-297.

VII. Of Crimes Against Religion and Conscience, and Other Offenses Against
Good Morals, §§ 299-310a.

VIII. Indecent Exposure, Obscene Exhibitions, Books and Prints, and Bawdy and
Other Disorderly Houses, §§ 311-318.

RAPE, ABDUCTION, CARNAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN AND SEDUCTION.

§ 261. RAPE DEFINED. Rape is an act of sexual intercourse, accomplished with a female not the wife of the perpetrator, under either of the following circumstances: 1. Where the female is under the age of eighteen years;

2. Where she is incapable, through lunacy or other unsoundness of mind, whether temporary or permanent, of giving legal consent;

3. Where she resists, but her resistance is overcome by force or violence;

4. Where she is prevented from resisting by threats of great and immediate bodily harm, accompanied by apparent power of execution, or by any intoxicating narcotic, or anaesthetic, substance, administered by or with the privity of the accused;

5. Where she is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act, and this is known to the accused;

6. Where she submits under the belief that the person committing the act is her husband, and this belief is induced by any artifice, pretense, or concealment practiced by the accused, with intent to induce such belief.

Enacted February 14, 1872, founded on § 47 Criminal Practice Act, Stats. 1850, p. 234; amendment approved March 16, 1889, Stats. and Amdts. 1889, p. 223; March 27, 1897, Stats. and Amdts. 1897, p. 201; May 19, 1913, Stats. and Amdts. 1913, p. 212. In effect August 10, 1913.

As to assault with intent to commit rape, see ante, § 220.