Opinion ID: 2081189
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: -Battered Child Syndrome-

Text: Calling to mind that the accused is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, and ever so mindful that this is not a criminal case charging the accused with child abuse, the appellate mind must focus on the showing of the State's two pathologists in this case. Dr. Henry and Dr. Sweeny stated that this was not a case of Battered Child Syndrome. Although I agree that the six elements of Best, 232 N.W.2d 447, are collectively too restrictive in scope, and do not disagree with this Court adopting a new standard in this state for future cases, nonetheless, I still could not reverse the trial court on its findings, conclusions, and order in this case. With two state pathologists expressing such expert medical opinions, and there being no evidence to the contrary, Finding of Fact XIII, XIV, and XV were highly pertinent to the trial court's decision to disallow the testimony of one Dr. Robert ten Bensel. Set forth below are said findings: XIII. That on the 23rd day of July, 1981, at Rapid City, South Dakota, at 8:45 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., Dr. Thomas Henry, a forensic pathologist with ten (10) years of forensic pathology experience, performed an autopsy on the body of the deceased. That Dr. Henry is a forensic pathologist with experience in working for law enforcement agencies and for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and has testified regarding his findings in previous criminal matters. That Dr. Henry is qualified in investigating traumatic, accidental, and natural deaths that are sudden and unexpected and is informed about the Battered Child Syndrome and the deaths occurring therefrom. Dr. Henry further has experience in anoxia type deaths. XIV. That bruises were present on the body of the deceased about the face, back and chest. That all of the bruises are superficial and when considered alone or together could not be the cause of death. That several bruises were old and not related to the events occurring the evening the child died. XV. That the deceased had no history or present evidence of ever having any broken bones, nor any skull fractures or damage to the skull at all. The majority opinion recognizes, and rightly so, that the cause of death was attributed to anoxia. A fair import of the findings was that the cause of death was not by trauma. Faced with expert medical opinion, the trial court apparently felt compelled under the state of the record to enter the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law that it did. Our review is pursuant to Best. Did the court, within its discretionary powers, err by suppressing the evidence of Dr. ten Bensel? Under the state of the record, I am not prepared to say so. If there was evidence establishing a traumatic death with the cause of death related to the Battered Child Syndrome, obviously I would reach an opposite conclusion. Generally, the evidence gathered to prove child abuse is circumstantial. When in the course of this murder-manslaughter prosecution, the State must prove cause of death, said causation must be established within a reasonable medical certainty. The burden of proof will be upon the State of South Dakota to come forward with scientific and medical proof to establish that the child died as a result of trauma. At such point in time of proof, the State will not be able to rest on circumstantial evidence of child abuse to establish cause of death. The trial court was faced with statements by forensic pathologists who would not attribute death to trauma. Dr. Henry pointed out that he found no evidence in this case that force was used in effecting this death and finds no evidence that would lead one to believe that this death was intentionally effected. An anoxia-caused death, inflicted by a lay person, would have left evidence readily seen by the trained eye and mind of the pathologists. Again, I point out that the criminal charge herein is not child abuse, it is murder-manslaughter. The trial judge, a servant on the Bench for decades, labored and surely anguished over this decision, as I likewise do by this writing. It is rudimentary, that as lawyers and judges, we must decide cases by the evidence.