Hicks v. State

OPINION

Opinion by

Chief Justice MORRISS.

Billy Ray Johnson, a forty-two year-old, mentally retarded black man, had been invited to a late-September drinking party in rural Cass County, ostensibly to provide the youthful, 1 white revelers some “entertainment” with his dancing. But Johnson became a problem when, after a dispute arose over a change in the type of music being played, Colt Amox punched Johnson once in the face, knocking him unconscious. The rest of the night, the question was what to do with the unconscious Johnson.

James Cory Hicks, one of the revelers, was, at the age of…