Opinion ID: 1057682
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: Sufficiency of Evidence of Serious Bodily Injury

Text: The Defendant next argues that the evidence was insufficient to support a finding of serious bodily injury, the element necessary to elevate the crimes from child abuse to aggravated child abuse. The Court of Criminal Appeals disagreed, and so do we. Serious bodily injury is defined as a bodily injury that involves any of the following: (A) A substantial risk of death; (B) Protracted unconsciousness; (C) Extreme physical pain; (D) Protracted or obvious disfigurement; or (E) Protracted loss or substantial impairment of a function of a bodily member, organ or mental faculty[.] Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-11-106(a)(34) (1997). The Defendant insists that no rational jury could have determined that S.H. suffered from extreme physical pain due to the four fractures in one leg and two in the other. The Defendant argues that the unique features of infant minds and skeletons, when combined with S.H.'s inability as a two-month-old infant to articulate the level of her pain, made it impossible for the jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the pain qualified as extreme. The medical testimony established that S.H. behaved in a manner consistent with pain in her right leg. The jury heard medical testimony confirming the severity of her injuries. Dr. Nunley described the pain for injuries of that nature as extreme and explained that older children with similar fractures experience an overwhelming degree of pain. Dr. Roberts compared the pain from the injuries to the continuous injection of a vaccine for an uninterrupted period of days or weeks. From this, a rational jury could have concluded that the pain was extreme, and thus that bodily injury qualified as serious.