People v. Hall

NAME:	People (“P”) v. Hall (“D”)	557 N.Y.S.2d 879	1990
FACTS:	· 5.16.1986 – D became engaged in a fistfight with a man in a grocery store. After being separated, D left to procure a gun and then proceeded to return to the scene where he waited for the man to exit the store. D thereupon opened fire on the man but inadvertently struck Brigette Garrett, once in the arm and in the abdomen. · Garrett was, at the time, 28-32 weeks pregnant, and the shot to the stomach severed the placenta, resulting in a lack of oxygen to the fetus which mandated immediate delivery. · The baby was born by Caesarean and lived for 36hrs. before dying from a series of problems attributed to prematurity and oxygen deprivation.
PROCEDURE:	None given
ISSUE:	Can an individual be convicted of the homicide of an infant who succumbs following a premature Caesarean birth necessitated by the shooting of her pregnant mother?
HOLDING:	YES. Since D’s conduct in firing a loaded gun into a crowd on the street was of such a nature as would enable a rational person to comprehend that it is a gross deviation from the normal standard of behavior, thereby creating a substantial and unjustifiable risk that someone might be shot and injured or killed, is absurd for him to complain that he did not receive fair notice that he was acting in a criminal manner.
REASONING:	· (RULE): Pub. Health Law 4130(1) – Live birth is defined as the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of conception, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy, which, after such separation, breathes or shows any other evidence of life… · (RULE): “fetal death” as described in section 4160(1) – death prior to the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of conception; the death is indicated by the fact that after such separation, the fetus does not breathe or show any other evidence of life… · Atallia had been fully expelled from her mother; she was no longer attached to the placenta, had a heartbeat and was capable of independent circulation…under these circumstances, there can be no doubt that she was born alive… · Illness is not equivalent to the absence of life and the fact that Atallia was very sick at birth hardly means that she was not alive. · D was charged with causing the death of a person who had been born and lived after birth, not with causing the death of a fetus, and he was prosecuted under this theory (See U.S. v. Spencer and Williams v. State) · (RULE): U.S. v. Harriss – A criminal statute violates the prohibition against ex post facto law only if it does not furnish a person of ordinary intelligence with fair notice that contemplated actions are forbidden by law. · It is impossible to perceive how an individual of even less than ordinary intelligence can fail to be aware that standing on a street and firing at someone in a crowd on the other side is not lawful conduct…D’s behavior after the shooting in immediately riding himself of the gun and lying low for the next several days clearly indicates that he recognized the criminality involved in his actions.
DISPOSITION:	Judgment affirmed
DISSENT:	None