Worthen v. State

Lesley Clint Worthen was charged with statutory child abuse and common law assault and battery, each charge relating to an injury sustained by his stepchild. He was tried by a jury in the Circuit Court for St. Mary’s County, which convicted him of assault and battery, but exonerated him from child abuse.

The State’s evidence was admittedly thin, resting upon the two basic factors of underlying proof of a crime that were described to the jury by the State as being, 1. the proof that “a crime has been corrimitted,” {i.e., the corpus delicti) and 2. the proof that appellant committed it {i.e.,…