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30 U. Cin. L. Rev. 35 (1961)
Bigamy, a Crime Though Unwittingly Committed

handle is hein.journals/ucinlr30 and id is 47 raw text is: BIGAMY, A CRIME THOUGH UNWITTINGLY COMMITTED MARVIN M. MOORE * In most American jurisdictions it is the law that criminal intent is unnecessary to the crime of bigamy. Whether or not the accused knew that he was already married when he wedded his second spouse is deemed an immaterial issue. This law cannot be vindicated, as will, it is hoped, become evident in the follow- ing paragraphs. The rule's existence and wide acceptance are ascribable primarily to three factors: historical considerations; judicial deference to certain principles of statutory construction; and, misguided judical concepts of public policy. To treat first of its historical development, bigamy became a crime in England during the reign of James I,1 when a statute was passed entitled, lengthily enough, An Act to Restrain All Persons from Marriage Until Their Former Wives and Former Husbands Be Dead. The act's preamble read thus: Forasmuch as divers evil disposed persons, being married, run out of one country into another, or into places where they are not known, and there become to be married, having an- other husband or wife living, to the great dishonor of God and the utter undoing of divers honest men's children and others, be it enacted by the King's Majesty as follows .... 2 The phrase to the great dishonor of God is significant, for at this time the feeling was widespread that to commit bigamy was to profane a solemn ceremony, and the offense was conse- *Assistant Professor of Law, University of Akron College of Law. A. B., Wayne State University. L.L.B. and L.L.M., Duke University. I Prior to this time bigamy constituted merely a minor offense punishable by ecclesiastical courts. State v. Sellers, 140 S.C. 66, 134 S.E. 873 (1926). However, anyone guilty of the act was prohibited from ever taking ecclesiastical orders and was denied benefit of clergy. Trowbridge, Criminal Intent and Bigamy, 7 CAuF. L. REV. 1, 10 (1918). 22 James I, c. 11 (1604). See Bartholomew, The Origin and Development of the Law of Bigamy, 74 L.Q. REv. 259 (1958).

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