Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Public Defense Blogs -> A Public Defender's Journal

Public Defense

: A Public Defender's Journal

Trial update

By swd

My boss re-tried the murder case last week. The child who died was horribly abused in his short life. He had multiple broken ribs and over 30 healing bruises on his body. One of the bruises was in the shape of a little hand. The big question, of course, was who did all of this to the child.

Our client was not the biological father, but the mother's boyfriend. He never disciplined any of her three children. And, the two-year old had been with his grandparents for the two weeks prior to this death. They dropped him off around 4:30 or 4:45, and he was dead by 5:30. The mother arrived home around 5:20, perhaps a little before, and the call to 911 was placed at 5:26. The poor little guy died because someone had hit him so hard that his heart was compressed between his chest and his spine and ended up tearing. That sort of injury is extremely lethal, and could have resulted in death in as little as five minutes. No one saw our client hit the child, and the mother was subsequently charged with abusing the child. The timeline here was absolutely critical.

The case went in much better last week, and the jury ultimately acquitted the client of both charges. He was released last week, and is now free, for the first time in over a year.

Full post as published by A Public Defender's Journal on June 27, 2007 (boomark / email).