California Court of Appeal

A parent has a duty to protect his or her young child and may be criminally culpable on an aider and abettor theory for an assault causing death and on an implied malice theory for murder where the parent fails to take reasonably necessary steps for the child's protection, so long as the parent, with ability to do so, fails to take those steps with the intent of facilitating the perpetrator's assaultive offense.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/11/2008
• Published 03/11/2008

Judges

• EPSTEIN, P.J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Brett Harding Duxbury, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant., Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Assistant Attorney General, Mary Sanchez and Michael R. Johnsen, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.