Home > Journals > Michigan Law Review > MLR > Volume 54 > Issue 3 (1956)
Article Title
Criminal Law - Immoral Practices and Conduct - Acts Injuriously Affecting Public Morality Punishable as Common Law Misdemeanor
Abstract
The indictment charged that defendant, contriving to corrupt "the morals and manners of the good citizens of this Commonwealth," made numerous telephone calls to the home of a married woman, a stranger to defendant, in which he used obscene language not only with her but with other members of her family and in which he proposed fornication and sodomy. Although the indictment concededly did not state a statutory offense, the defendant was tried and convicted of a common law misdemeanor. On appeal, held, affirmed, two justices dissenting. The indictment set forth conduct constituting a common law misdemeanor, even though there was no exact precedent for the particular offense. Commonwealth v. Mochan, 177 Pa. Super. 454, 110A. (2d) 788 (1955).