Nature of the Case
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Facts
Shock (D) beat a 5 to 6-year-old boy with a fishing pole about three feet long and one and ½ inches wide. This went on for a considerable number of minutes. D then left the room to get another implement and got a grapevine of 1 and ¼ inches and resumed the beating. This lasted for 15 minutes. The boy did not scream but did moan during the beating. The boy died from injuries after several days. When the body was examined, it was found covered in bruises, the back beaten to jelly, and his skull fractured. D introduced evidence to show that the boy was very weak and sickly and that the wounds on the head were caused by falling down the stairs. (Some things just never change). The boy was the son of a cousin of the wife of D and had been at D’s house for two months. The jury was told that it was not necessary that for there to be first-degree murder the fatal beating be given with specific intent to kill but that it merely was given willfully and maliciously with intent to inflict great bodily harm and death to ensue. The jury was also instructed that if D did not intend to kill the child but intended to do the boy great bodily harm by whipping and that in fact killed the boy, he was guilty of first-degree murder. D appealed.
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