O'Connor v. State

The appellant William O’Connor was charged with second degree murder and convicted of voluntary manslaugther. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the cause for a new trial. In so doing, the Court of Appeals contravened ruling precedent as hereinafter set out. We therefore grant the State’s petition to transfer.

O’Connor had been living with the mother of the three-year-old victim. On June 3,1976, the mother left the child in the appellant’s care. He found the victim lying unconscious near a swing set. The child was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she later died. The pathologist…