Funkhouser v. State

1988 OK CR 109, 763 P.2d 695, 1988 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 118, 1988 WL 56302
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 26, 1988
DocketF-84-748
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1988 OK CR 109 (Funkhouser v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Funkhouser v. State, 1988 OK CR 109, 763 P.2d 695, 1988 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 118, 1988 WL 56302 (Okla. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinions

OPINION

BUSSEY, Judge:

Kevin Eugene Funkhouser and Jamie Ann Funkhouser were jointly charged, tried and convicted by a jury in McClain County District Court Case Nos. CRF-83-126 and CRF-83-127 of Manslaughter in the Second Degree. Both appellants received two (2) year sentences. From these sentences the appellants appeal.

On July 15, 1983, Benjamin Keith Funk-houser, the appellants’ three month old son died at home from complications arising from pneumonia. The appellants, although knowing Benjamin was ill, did not seek medical help. Instead, the parents relied on prayer and divine intervention to heal their child. The parents are members of The Church of The New Born that relies on divine intervention for healing sickness to the exclusion of medical assistance.

The church bases its belief on James 5:14-15 of the Holy Bible.1 Pursuant to scripture, the elders of the church prayed for Benjamin and annointed him with oil one week prior to his death, and they visited again three days before he died.

During the two weeks that Benjamin was sick his condition continually worsened. The infant was unable to breast feed and the appellants fed him with an ear syringe. The appellants did not seek medical aid and the child died.

I

Appellants contend that they were irreparably harmed since the trial court allowed the preliminary hearing to be televised. We disagree. A reading of the record reveals that the preliminary hearing was neither photographed nor broadcast.

A juvenile proceeding was being held prior to the appellants’ preliminary hearing. Apparently the judge granted a television photographer access to the courtroom. The photographer filmed the juvenile proceeding and people in the courtroom, including the appellants.

Before the commencement of the preliminary hearing, the judge, upon defense counsel’s objection, prohibited the media from filming the appellants, their counsel or defense witnesses pursuant to 5 O.S. 1981, Ch. 1, App. 4, 3(A)(7).

A preliminary hearing is within the definition of a criminal proceeding referred to in 5 O.S.1981, Ch. 1, App. 4, 3(A)(7)(e). This provision prohibits the photographing or broadcasting of any criminal proceeding without the accused’s consent. The period before the preliminary hearing was not part of the proceeding. The appellants have failed to show they were harmed by any filming which took place in the courtroom prior to their preliminary hearing. Consequently, this assignment of error is without merit.

II

The appellants contend that the trial court erred in overruling their motion to quash the information and dismiss the charges. The appellants argue that they should have been charged with Manslaughter in the First Degree (misdemeanor manslaughter) under 21 O.S.1981, § 711(1).

[697]*697The State charged the appellants with Manslaughter in the Second Degree under 21 O.S.1981, § 716. That statute reads:

Every killing of one human being by the act, procurement or culpable negligence of another which, under the provisions of this chapter, is not murder, nor manslaughter in the first degree, nor excusable, nor justifiable homicide, is manslaughter in the second degree.

The State alleged culpable negligence of the appellants by failing and refusing to seek medical attention for their child.

The appellants urge that they should have been charged with Misdemean- or Manslaughter. They assert that the misdemeanor, Omission to Provide for a Child, 21 O.S.1981, § 8522 was the predicate misdemeanor giving rise to Misdemeanor Manslaughter.

Reliance on 21 O.S.1981, § 852 provides an absolute defense to First Degree Manslaughter. State v. Lockhart, 664 P.2d 1059 (Okl.Cr.1983). To adopt the appellants’ position would have forced the State into the untenable position of charging the appellants with a crime for which they could not be convicted in the State of Oklahoma.

The filing of a criminal information is a decision that is within the prosecutor’s discretion. The prosecutor has the sole authority to decide under which statute to file charges. Wolfenbarger v. State, 710 P.2d 114 (Okl.Cr.1985), cert. denied 476 U.S. 1182, 106 S.Ct. 2915, 91 L.Ed.2d 544 (1986). Title 21 O.S.1981, § 11 provides that where an act or omission is made punishable in different ways by different provisions of the criminal code, a violator may be punished under either. Satepeahtaw v. State, 595 P.2d 805 (Okl.Cr.1979).

Under the law in existence at the time the appellants were charged, the District Attorney could not have prosecuted for Manslaughter in the First Degree. The situation existed where the death of the appellants’ child could not have been filed as Manslaughter in the First Degree since the predicate misdemeanor would not have sustained the charge. The homicide was not murder, neither was the homicide excusable or justifiable. Therefore, the prosecutor properly charged the appellants with being culpably negligent of their son’s death under Manslaughter in the Second Degree.

Based upon the foregoing, we find that the trial court did not err in overruling the appellants’ motion to quash the information.

III

Appellants allege that the trial court erred in denying their motion in limine. The appellants did not support this assignment of error with citation of authority. We have repeatedly held that assignments of error must be supported by argument and authority. Perez v. State, 614 P.2d 1112 (Okl.Cr.1980). Since the appellants were not deprived of their ■ fundamental rights we will not search the books for authority to support their argument.

IV

A further contention is that the trial court erred by refusing to instruct the jury on the appellants’ version of the defense of good faith reliance on spiritual means.

The appellants relying on Lockhart v. State, supra, submitted Requested Instruction No. 11:

A person is justified under the law of this State in not providing medical treatment of his child if instead the parent in good faith, selects and depends upon spiritual means alone through prayer, in accordance with tenets and practice of a recognized church or religious denomination, for the treatment or cure of disease of such child.

We found this instruction appropriate in Lockhart where the appellants were charged with Manslaughter in the First Degree. In the present case, the appel[698]*698lants were charged with Manslaughter in the Second Degree and the appellants’ requested instruction would have been improper.

The State submitted and the court adopted the instruction that:

A person may be justified under the law of this State in not providing medical treatment of his child if instead the parent in good faith, selects and depends upon spiritual means alone through prayer, in accordance with tenets and practice of a recognized church or religious denomination, for the treatment or cure of disease of such child,

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Related

State v. Haworth
2012 OK CR 12 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2012)
Gilson v. Sirmons
520 F.3d 1196 (Tenth Circuit, 2008)
Quillen v. State
2007 OK CR 22 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 2007)
Funkhouser v. State
1988 OK CR 109 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1988)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1988 OK CR 109, 763 P.2d 695, 1988 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 118, 1988 WL 56302, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/funkhouser-v-state-oklacrimapp-1988.