Contemporary Business and Online Commerce Law 7th Edition by Henry R Cheeseman

Exercise 1

Murder

State of Ohio v. Wilson

2004 Ohio 2838, Web 2004 Ohio App. Lexis 2503 (2004)

Court of Appeals of Ohio

“In determining whether a verdict is against the manifest weight of the evidence, the appellate court acts as a ‘thirteenth juror.’"

—Judge Sadler

Facts

Gregory O. Wilson, who had been arguing earlier in the day with his girlfriend, Melissa Spear, approached a parked car within which Ms. Spear was seated and poured gasoline from a beer bottle over her head. When Ms. Spear exited the car, Wilson ignited her with his cigarette lighter, setting her body on fire. As Ms. Spear became engulfed in flames, and while bystanders tried to assist her, Wilson walked away and down the street as if nothing had happened.

Paramedics arrived at the scene. One paramedic described Ms. Spear’s burns as the worst he had ever seen. A witness described her after the fire as “totally black, no hair, laying there with her skin melted off of her, the flesh looked like wax melted. She was black, looked up at me saying ‘help me.’”

Ms. Spear was transported from the scene to the hospital. When she arrived, she had third-degree burns on her face, neck, trunk, arms, hands, and thighs. She was put in a medically induced coma and placed on a respirator. She remained in a coma for forty-five days, during which time she underwent ten surgeries that excised her burn wounds and placed synthetic skin dressing or skin grafts onto her wound sites. Ms. Spear was transferred to a rehabilitation facility. Upon her release from the rehabilitation facility, she received continual treatment and medicine for pain, infection, and depression. Nine months after the incident occurred, and five days before her thirtieth birthday, Ms. Spear’s 7-year-old son found her lying dead in her bed.

The state of Ohio brought criminal charges against Wilson. He was convicted by a jury of aggravated murder and was sentenced to prison for thirty years to life. Mr. Wilson appealed his conviction.

Issue

Was there sufficient causation between Wilson’s act of setting Ms. Spear on fire and Ms. Spear’s death nine months later to warrant a conviction for murder?

Language of the Court

Specifically, appellant argues that the nine-month lapse of time between his act of setting Ms. Spear on fire and her eventual death render the verdict of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt on the aggravated murder charge unsupported by the manifest weight and sufficiency of the evidence.

In determining whether a verdict is against the manifest weight of the evidence, the appellate court acts as a “thirteenth juror. ” Under this standard of review, the appellate court weighs the evidence in order to determine whether the trier of fact clearly lost its way and created such a manifest miscarriage of justice that the conviction must be reversed and a new trial ordered.

Proximate causation is the strongest if the victim dies immediately or shortly after being injured by the defendant. However, a defendant is not relieved of culpability for the natural consequences of inflicting serious wounds on another merely because the victim later died of complications brought on by the injury. The passing of nine months between appellant’s act of setting Ms. Spear on fire and her eventual death does not, alone, render appellant’s conviction for aggravated murder reversible. The evidence sufficiently demonstrates that the physical maladies that brought about the death ofMs. Spear were the natural, probable and foreseeable results of appellant’s conduct. In short, there was sufficient evidence presented upon which the jury could have rationally concluded that appellant’s act of setting Melissa Spear ablaze was the direct and proximate cause of both of the physical conditions that the coroner determined precipitated her death.

Decision

The court of appeals affirmed the trial court’s conviction of Wilson of the crime of the murder of Ms. Spear. The court of appeals remanded the case to the trial court to permit Wilson to make a statement on his behalf prior to sentencing.

Case Questions

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Critical Legal Thinking What is murder? Is it easy to define?

Ethics Do you think Wilson’s legal argument on appeal was justified? Why or why not?

Contemporary Business If you were a juror in this case, would you have voted for the death penalty? Do you think the death penalty should be used or abolished? Why or why not?