Commonwealth v. Power

As the result of the death of an infant from injuries suffered in her family day care home, a Superior Court jury convicted the defendant, Ann Power, of involuntary manslaughter by reason of wanton or reckless conduct. Upon medical evidence of shaken baby syndrome, the Commonwealth had pressed the case to the jury upon additional theories of murder in the first and second degrees and of involuntary manslaughter by battery. The trial judge instructed the jury upon all four theories of homicide and included each in the verdict slip. The jury acquitted the defendant of both degrees of murder and…