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3rd DCA ROUNDUP -"TO PUT IT MILDLY" EDITION

By "Captain Liberty" and "Rumpole"

A very tragic case starts us off today: Stephenson v. State: This is a tragic case in all respects. A young woman with no priors gives birth to a very premature baby, who had numerous serious medical issues concomitant with being born premature. The woman was convicted of aggravated manslaughter of her child via the theory that she neglected the child who starved to death. The court reversed and ordered a new trial. Held- abortion is one of the most hotly contested issues of our time, and crossing examining the woman as she testified that she had considered aborting her child prior to birth constituted fundamental error. The prosecutor compounded the error by raising the argument in closing argument. Practice tip: fundamental error, for purposes of granting a new trial, means an error which deprives a party of a fair trial or an error which objection or a curative instruction could not correct; such error gravely impairs the dispassionate and calm consideration of the evidence and merits by the jury...continue to full post

Full post as published by Justice Building Blog on March 03, 2010 (boomark / email).