Court Opinion

ID: 9610267
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:39:13.769357+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:47:02.827835
License: Public Domain

NEELY, Justice,
dissenting:
I dissent because it does not appear to me that burying a body and covering it with dirt exclusively to conceal it is the *397type of “temporary or permanent burial place” contemplated by W. Va. Code, 61-8-14 [1984]. If the appellant in this case is guilty of anything, she is guilty of being a principal or accessory to homicide. We are stretching the plain intent of this statute to catch the appellant in its net. “Penal statutes must be strictly construed against the State and in favor of the defendant.” State ex rel. Carson v. Wood, 154 W.Va. 397, 175 S.E.2d 482 (1970).1

. See also, State v. Hager, 176 W.Va. 313, 342 S.E.2d 281 (1986); State v. Hodges, 172 W.Va. 322, 305 S.E.2d 278 (1983); State v. Vandall, 170 W.Va. 374, 294 S.E.2d 177 (1982); State v. Barnett, 168 W.Va. 361, 284 S.E.2d 622 (1981); State v. Cole, 160 W.Va. 804, 238 S.E.2d 849 (1977); State ex rel. Davis v. Oakley, 156 W.Va. 154, 191 S.E.2d 610 (1972).