Opinion ID: 1060568
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Aggravated Child Abuse and Murder for the Reckless Killing of a Child As Separate Offenses

Text: The defendant argues that aggravated child abuse is not a lesser-included offense of murder for the reckless killing of a child because aggravated child abuse is a predicate offense that the legislature has designated as a separate offense subject to separate punishments. She maintains that if aggravated child abuse were a lesser included offense of homicide then a conviction for both murder and aggravated child abuse could not stand because one cannot be convicted of both the greater and lesser crimes. The crux of her argument is that Tennessee permits dual convictions for both the reckless killing of a child and its predicate felony, aggravated child abuse. Tennessee merger law, however, mandates that dual convictions of both a greater offense and its lesser-included offense merge, thereby vacating the conviction for the lesser-included offense. See State v. Beard, 818 S.W.2d 376, 379 (Tenn.Crim.App.1991). Accordingly, she contends that the legislature has designated predicate felonies under the first degree murder statute as separate crimes subject to separate punishments and that these crimes are not lesser-included offenses. In the case now before us, the defendant was not indicted on separate counts for both the reckless killing of a child and aggravated child abuse. Accordingly, we need not determine whether the doctrine of merger would preclude dual convictions for both the reckless killing of a child and aggravated child abuse. We note, however, that a legislative intent to permit dual convictions and sentences for both felony murder and the predicate felony does not appear to be present under the reckless killing of a child provision in Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-202(a)(4) (1994). The legislature originally codified the reckless killing of a child by aggravated child abuse in response to State v. Kerry Phillip Bowers, No. 115 (Tenn.Crim.App., filed Aug. 2, 1989). This codification was known as the Scotty Trexler Law. The intent of the Scotty Trexler Law was not to permit dual convictions but to punish the reckless killing of a child as first degree murder. See State v. Hale, 840 S.W.2d 307, 310 n.3 (Tenn.1992) (The amendment was passed by the General Assembly late in the session in response to the public outcry after the conviction of Kerry Phillip Bowers for the lesser offense of the second-degree murder of Scotty Trexler....). Whether to permit dual convictions is not, however, an issue in this case. [2]