[703] The Code of Ala. (1897), 460, punishes the abuse of a girl below fourteen, at the discretion of the jury, either by death or by not less than ten years in prison; but an act of 1897, also in the Code, punishes carnal knowledge of a female between ten and fourteen only by a fine of $50 to $500, and the offender "may be imprisoned in the county jail for six months." This provision appears to reduce the protection of a child above ten to little more than a pretense: Acts (1897), 944.
[704] Comp. Laws of N. M. (1897), 344: penalty, five to ten years' imprisonment.
[705] For Georgia, in 1895, the age of consent was reported as fourteen, or any younger age if the jury finds that "by reason of her intelligence she knows good from evil": see Gardener, in Arena, XIV, 415, 416; but I have not been able to find this provision in the present Code. The penalty for rape is death, unless the jury recommend to mercy, when it is one to twenty years' imprisonment at hard labor: Code (1896), III, 36, 39. This penalty applies when the girl is under ten: 11 Ga., 227.
[706] Ky. Stat. (1899), 516: penalty, ten to twenty years in prison.
[707] Ann. Code (1892), 372: penalty, death, unless the jury fix the punishment at life imprisonment. There is in Mississippi an abduction law to protect girls below sixteen: but the age-of-consent law stops at ten. Cf. Gardener, loc. cit., 416.
[708] Laws of Kan. (1887), c. 150, § 1: Gen. Stat. (1901), 437: penalty, five to twenty years in prison.
[709] Act of Dec. 18, 1890, amending an act of March 14, 1890, which fixed the age at fourteen: Laws of Wyo. (1890), 130: ibid. (1890-91), 85, 86; Rev. Stat. (1899), 1236; penalty, rape, with imprisonment "not less than one year or during life."
[710] Raised from fourteen: Laws of Neb. (1895), 314, 315; Comp. Stat. (1901), 1409: penalty three to twenty years in prison. But the value of the law is lessened by the provision that it shall not apply in case of a girl over fifteen if "previously unchaste."
[711] Laws of Col. (1895), 155: penalty, one to twenty years in prison; raised from sixteen to eighteen.
[712] Raised from ten to fourteen in 1893, and advanced to eighteen in 1895: penalty, imprisonment for life or not less than five years. Compare Rev. Stat. of Idaho (1887), 733; Laws (1893), 10, 11; Laws (1895), 19; and Penal Code (1901), 134, 139.