Court Opinion

ID: 9573741
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:58:19.558262+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:43:14.092460
License: Public Domain

Benton, J.,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
For the reasons I have previously stated in Williams v. Commonwealth, 6 Va. App. 412, 415-16, 368 S.E.2d 293, 294-95 (1988) (Benton, J., dissenting), I concur in that portion of the opinion which holds that defense counsel’s closing argument to the trial court constituted a sufficient contemporaneous objection to preserve for appeal the question of the sufficiency of the evidence.
I do not join in the remainder of the opinion because I believe the evidence is insufficient to support a conviction of malicious wounding. The evidence establishes that James D. Campbell, Jr., and his wife experienced difficulty in rearing the wife’s child and in correcting the. child’s behavior. Campbell’s wife testified that when she attempted to correct the child’s inappropriate behavior, the child rebelled. Both Campbell and his wife testified that they normally used corporal punishment as a means of disciplining the child when he “was out of . . . control.” Campbell’s wife related that the child often refused to follow her instructions and that:
he would either backtalk, tell me he’s going to do it anyway, hit me, cuss me, tell me he hates me. They have been incidents he’s picked up little chairs and threw them at me.
*492He’s cussed at me. It’s continuously, he will not listen to me. I have, nine out of ten times I’d have to go to [Campbell] because he would listen to [Campbell] and he wouldn’t me.
Campbell’s wife attributed the child’s behavior problems to abusive treatment he received during the three years he was in his grandmother’s custody. She said the child’s grandmother “would pull him around; . . . strike him with her hands in the face; pull his hair; call him a son-of-a-bitch, a little motherfucker, just things that no adult should even use on another adult, let alone a child.”
The incident that gave rise to the prosecution occurred when Campbell was disciplining the child. Campbell explained the punishment that he administered as follows:
A. I gave him five licks for fighting, for him and Josh fighting; I gave him the five licks for showing his butt out in public with his mom; and I gave him the five licks for fighting her.
Q. Now, what was your purpose in doing this?
A. Well, all, every time I whip my boys, I whipped them to correct them, to make sure that they have a strong upbringing. That is, I believe that is the only time I really, there is things they do that does not require a whipping, and there is things they do that do require a whipping, and both of them know that when they go out there is a certain way they have to act.
One thing I do not allow, and their momma knows it and their granny knows it, both of them have experienced, I do not allow either one of the boys to hit their mom or their granny.
The record unequivocally establishes that the punishment was given for the purpose of instilling discipline and that Campbell discontinued the beating of his own volition. In addition, the injury to the child was not permanent. The mother testified that the child “bruises very easily” and that the marks on the child’s back disappeared shortly after the incident.
The sole question before us is whether Campbell in spanking his stepson did “maliciously . . . wound” or “cause him bodily injury, *493with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill.” Code § 18.2-51. I concur that the evidence was sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Campbell caused bodily injury to the child when he beat him with a belt. The bruises were evident. See Bryant v. Commonwealth, 189 Va. 310, 316-17, 53 S.E.2d 54, 57-58 (1949). I do not agree that the evidence proved that Campbell acted maliciously or intended “to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill” the child, as required to prove a violation of Code § 18.2-51.
It has long been established in Virginia “that while parents or persons standing in loco parentis may administer such reasonable and timely punishment as may be necessary to correct faults in a growing child, the right cannot be used as a cloak for the exercise of uncontrolled passion, and that such person may be criminally liable for assault and battery if he inflicts corporal punishment which exceeds the bounds of due moderation.” Harbaugh v. Commonwealth, 209 Va. 695, 697-98, 167 S.E.2d 329, 332 (1969); see also Carpenter v. Commonwealth, 186 Va. 851, 860-61, 44 S.E.2d 419, 420-21 (1947). Indeed, in Harbaugh, where the immoderate use of punishment on a five year old child caused badly bruised buttocks with blood seepage and purple marks and welts on both legs such that the outer layer of skin stuck to the child’s underpants, Harbaugh, 209 Va. at 696, 167 S.E.2d at 331, the defendant was convicted of assault and battery. In Carpenter, where a seven year old child was beaten so badly that her entire body was covered with bruises that were open and bleeding and her face had a large bleeding gash, Carpenter, 186 Va. at 856, 44 S.E.2d at 421, the defendant similarly was convicted of assault and battery. In both cases, as in this case, the trier of fact was required to decide whether the degree of punishment was immoderate and excessive, and in both cases the trier of fact properly found it to be so.
Although the trier of fact could have found that the “severity of the whipping showed an utter lack of a due appreciation of parental duty,” id. at 866, 44 S.E.2d at 426, such a finding does not exclude passion that flows from the lack of good parenting skills. In the absence of other aggravating circumstances, bodily harm resulting from a lack of good parenting skills does not prove that punishment designed to correct ill behavior was maliciously inflicted. Cf. Christian v. Commonwealth, 221 Va. 1078, 1079-81, 277 S.E.2d 205, 207 (1981) (cigarette burn under the eye, broken *494ribs, and fractures of both legs caused by twisting force are circumstances of such violence and brutality against a six month old child that an inference of ill-will arises from the grievous nature of the injury).
Although a parent’s belief that a child’s ill conduct merits punishment does not justify the use of immoderate punishment, that belief does negate the existence of malice. “Malice inheres in the doing of a wrongful act intentionally, or without just cause or excuse, or as a result of ill will.” Dawkins v. Commonwealth, 186 Va. 55, 61, 41 S.E.2d 500, 503 (1947). Here, there is no evidence of a gratuitous assault upon the child. Indeed, the evidence is consistent with an immoderate use of punishment intended to correct ill behavior. Thus, there has been no showing toward the child of ill will, corrupt motive, or evil mind. See Fletcher v. Commonwealth, 209 Va. 636, 640, 166 S.E.2d 269, 272 (1969). The evidence in this case abundantly establishes that the beating that the child suffered was the product of poor parenting skills and not malice.
I believe that the majority mistakenly reasons that the factfinder reasonably could have found that Campbell intentionally committed a wrongful act without legal justification and thus acted maliciously. It has long been the rule in Virginia that:
[a] parent, or one standing in loco parentis, has the authority to administer chastisement or correction to his child. The moral sense of children is not sufficiently developed in all cases to admit of a successful appeal to the child to desist from wrongdoing without the aid of physical coercion.
Carpenter v. Commonwealth, 186 Va. at 861, 44 S.E.2d at 423 (quoting State v. McDonie, 89 W. Va. 185, 109 S.E. 710, 715 (1921)). Thus, corporal punishment is not wrongful in the same sense that self-defense is not wrongful. See Braxton v. Commonwealth, 195 Va. 275, 278, 77 S.E.2d 840, 841-42 (1953) (discussing the right of self-defense). Moreover, a parent’s use of corporal punishment to discipline a child always will be intentionally inflicted. Even if the majority somehow considers corporal punishment inherently wrongful, it is an act that is legally justified. The state only becomes interested in corporal punishment when the acts become unlawful. See Carpenter, 186 Va. at 861, 44 S.E.2d at 423.
*495Unlawfulness is the excessiveness or immoderation of the punishment. See id. at 862, 44 S.E.2d at 424. If the punishment is unlawful, the parent may be found guilty of abuse, assault and battery, or unlawful wounding assuming an intent to maim. Only when corporal punishment, an act sanctioned by our common law, is undertaken without the sole intent to discipline, but rather with ill-will, corrupt motive, or the evil intent to injure gratuitously, may the parent be subject to a malicious wounding prosecution. Under the majority’s reasoning, however, all cases of immoderate corporal punishment would be malicious since the punishment was intended and the excessiveness wrongful. The Virginia case law does not support that analysis. Cf. Harbaugh, 209 Va. at 697-98, 167 S.E.2d at 332 (conviction of assault and battery where a five year old child was severely beaten so as to cause bruises, blood seepage, purple marks and welts, and the outer layer of skin sticking to the child’s underpants); Carpenter, 186 Va. at 856, 44 S.E.2d at 421 (where a seven year old child was beaten so badly that her entire body was covered with bruises that were open and bleeding and her face had a large bleeding gash).
At most, the evidence showed Campbell committed a legally justified act, corporal punishment, but did so in an unlawful manner. Absent ill-will or the like, malice does not inhere under such circumstances. The facts of this case do not support the proposition that Campbell intended to exceed the undefined parameters of moderation. Although intent may be inferred from the facts and circumstances of a case, the inferences must be reasonable and justified, and not speculative. Patler v. Commonwealth, 211 Va. 448, 457, 177 S.E.2d 618, 624 (1970), cert. denied, 407 U.S. 909 (1972). Even if Campbell’s conduct was so immoderate that he became criminally liable for the beating, the evidence at best establishes an assault.
Moreover, the Commonwealth must prove specific intent if it undertakes to charge a violation of Code § 18.2-51. See McKeon v. Commonwealth, 211 Va. 24, 26, 175 S.E.2d 282, 284 (1970). Contrary to the Commonwealth’s assertion, the bruise marks on the child did not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Campbell intended “to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill.” Code § 18.2-51. Certainly, Campbell intended to punish. It is less certain, and surely speculative, that he intended to cause more than temporary and inconsequential discomfort to the boys. Conduct *496that causes “temporary and inconsequential” discomfort or disfigurement is not proscribed by the statute. Lee v. Commonwealth, 135 Va. 572, 578, 115 S.E. 671, 673 (1923). There was no attempt or intent by Campbell to cause injury to the child’s vital bodily parts. Cf. Dawkins v. Commonwealth, 186 Va. 55, 62, 41 S.E.2d 500, 504 (1947) (“breaking the nose . . . and particularly . . . kneeing . . . genital organs, were actions peculiarly calculated to disfigure, or disable, and permanently disable”).
Likewise, the evidence concerning the means used to inflict the beatings does not rise to the level of proving beyond a reasonable doubt the requisite intent. The use of a belt to punish a child is not so foreign to parenting that it raises an inference of intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill. Although the trier of fact was privileged to conclude that the bruising on the child was severe, the evidence establishes that the skin was not broken. Additionally, there is no evidence that the bruising required treatment by the physician.
The trier of fact could reasonably conclude upon these facts and circumstances that Campbell exceeded the bounds of moderation. These facts and circumstances, however, do not establish beyond a reasonable doubt an intent to cause serious or permanent harm. “[A]n intent to maim or disfigure cannot be presumed from an act which does not naturally bespeak such intent.” Banovitch v. Commonwealth, 196 Va. 210, 217, 83 S.E.2d 369, 373 (1954). Because, at best, a trier of fact could infer from the means used to punish the child a disregard for his safety, the record would support charges of assault and battery or other lesser included charges of abuse. The record is insufficient, however, to support the charge of unlawful or malicious wounding. For these reasons, I would reverse and remand for retrial on lesser charges if the Commonwealth be so advised.