State v. Fennell
Supreme Court of South Carolina
531 S.E.2d 512 (2000)
John Fennell (defendant), who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, got into a dispute with fellow Civitan Club member William Thrailkill over an empty charity candy box; after Thrailkill made a disparaging remark at a later club meeting, Fennell retrieved a gun from his car and shot Thrailkill five times, killing him two months later. A stray bullet from the same shooting struck and injured bystander Elihue Armstrong, who survived. The State (plaintiff) charged Fennell with murdering Thrailkill and with assault and battery with intent to kill Armstrong; the jury found him guilty but mentally ill on both counts, and Fennell appealed the denial of his motion for a directed verdict on the assault charge, arguing transferred intent did not apply.
Whether the doctrine of transferred intent can assign criminal liability to a defendant when his intended victim is killed and the same act inflicts the same kind of harm on an unintended victim who survives.