Burnett v. State

Darrell Hickman, Justice.

Larry and Brenda Burnett were convicted of the first degree murder of their thirteen month old infant, Larry Burnett, Jr. The jury recommended life without parole, but the court reduced the sentence to life imprisonment, the maximum legal sentence. The state’s case was based primarily on medical testimony that the child suffered abuse over a period of weeks or months and sustained numerous injuries, eventually dying from a blow to the abdomen. The defense was a denial of abuse by the parents and other witnesses, with evidence that the child had been sickly from birth,…