Carolyn Mullen v. United States

EDGERTON, Circuit Judge.

This appeal is from a conviction under D.C.Code (1951) § 22-901, which makes it a crime to “torture, cruelly beat, abuse, or otherwise wilfully maltreat” a child. Appellant’s young Children were found chained in her house while she was absent. There was evidence, that she had chained them, and ajlso that she had done so for their “protection”. The District Court rightly charged the jury as a matter of law that appellant did not “torture” the children. But j with regard to the statutory words “hbuse” and “wilfully maltreat”, the court charged the jury to decide whether…