State of Maine v. Burton B. Hagar

[¶1] Corpus delicti , which means "body of the crime," describes the legal concept that the occurrence of a crime must be established before a person can be convicted of committing that crime. Corpus delicti , Black's Law Dictionary (10th ed. 2014) (quotation marks omitted). In this case, Burton B. Hagar relies on that principle in his appeal from a judgment of conviction for manslaughter, 17-A M.R.S.A. § 203(1)(A) (Supp. 1978), 1 entered by the trial court (Cumberland County, Warren, J. ) after a conditional guilty plea. Hagar argues that the State failed to provide sufficient evidence,…