Gibson v. Commonwealth

Citation50 S.W. 532,106 Ky. 360
PartiesGIBSON v. COMMONWEALTH. [1]
Decision Date12 April 1899
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky

Appeal from circuit court, Jefferson county, criminal division.

"To be officially reported."

Sallie Gibson was convicted of manslaughter, under an indictment for murder, and she appeals. Affirmed.

Jas. R W. Smith, for appellant.

W. S Taylor and M. H. Thatcher, for the Commonwealth.

BURNAM J.

The appellant was indicted for the murder of her two months old baby, and was found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to the penitentiary for three years; and from that judgment this appeal is prosecuted.

The main errors upon which she relies for a reversal are (1) that the testimony in the case did not authorize the verdict of the jury; and (2) that the second instruction, which authorized the jury to find her guilty of manslaughter, did not sufficiently describe that offense.

The testimony discloses that defendant was an unmarried woman and that she gave birth to a female child on the 9th day of September, 1897, and that on the night of the 11th day of November, thereafter, she left the house where she had been staying since her accouchement, taking the child with her that she took it some seven or eight squares away, and left it in the yard in front of a residence at the corner of Brook and Breckinridge streets, in the city of Louisville. The baby was placed in a small basket, and was covered with a shawl or other wrap. The night was a cold, raw one, and it was found dead early the next morning by a policeman. The coroner who held the inquest testifies that the child was greatly emaciated, and probably died either from starvation or exposure; the indications after death being about the same whether it died from one cause or the other. The defendant testifies that the child was dead at the time she left its body in front of the residence; that it had died early in the morning of the same day; that she had concealed this fact, and kept its body covered up in her bed during the day, until night, because she was not able to bury it, and did not know what to do with the body; that she left it where she did, that some one might find it and bury it. She says that, after leaving the child on the lot, she went to the house of her aunt, and spent the night, and the next day went to Cincinnati, where she was subsequently arrested. It seems to us that her testimony is very improbable, and she is flatly contradicted by the testimony of Eliza Smith as to the time when the child died. She says that she saw the defendant...

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19 cases
  • Staples v. Commonwealth, 2011–SC–000788–MR.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky
    • 17 Abril 2014
    ...for injurious failures to protect and nurture and to provide medical assistance for their minor children. Gibson v. Commonwealth, 106 Ky. 360, 50 S.W. 532 (1899) (upholding manslaughter conviction of mother who abandoned her two-month old child on a neighbor's porch where the baby died from......
  • State v. Minton
    • United States
    • North Carolina Supreme Court
    • 1 Febrero 1952
    ...the direct cause is the natural result of his criminal act. Williams v. U. S., 57 App. D.C. 253, 20 F.2d 269; Gibson v. Commonwealth, 106 Ky. 360, 50 S.W. 532, 90 Am. St.Rep. 230; 40 C.J.S., Homicide, § In passing from this phase of the appeal, we indulge the observation that good legal cra......
  • Simpkins v. State
    • United States
    • Court of Special Appeals of Maryland
    • 1 Septiembre 1990
    ...only." and Annotation to Johnson v. State, 66 Ohio St. 59, 63 N.E. 607 (1902) in 61 L.R.A. at 290 (1903); Gibson v. Commonwealth, 106 Ky. 360, 50 S.W. 532 (1899). A number of American cases continue to speak in terms of whether the deprivation was with the intent that death ensue, although ......
  • Albright v. State
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
    • 20 Marzo 1973
    ...13 Cr.App.Rep. 134; Lewis v. State, 72 Ga. 164, 53 Am.Rep. 835; State v. Barnes, 141 Tenn. 469, 212 S.W. 100; Gibson v. Commonwealth, 106 Ky. 360, 50 S.W. 532 90 Am.St.Rep. 230; Pallis v. State, supra; Bishop on Criminal Law, 9th Ed. Sec. 686; Wharton's Criminal Law, 12th Ed. Sec. No count ......
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