State v. Ducker
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
1999 WL 160981 (1999)
Ducker (defendant) left her two young children locked in a car outside a hotel overnight while she visited her boyfriend inside, not returning to check on them until more than nine hours later; by then both children had died of hyperthermia, with a doctor estimating the car's interior had exceeded 120 degrees. Ducker was indicted for first-degree murder but convicted instead of two counts of aggravated child abuse; she appealed, arguing the trial court's jury instruction on the meaning of "knowingly" failed to properly distinguish which element of the offense the mental state applied to.
Whether, under the Model Penal Code's element analysis, a culpability term such as "knowingly" can attach separately to the nature of the conduct, the circumstances existing at the time, or the result of the conduct, requiring a jury instruction tailored to each element.