189 Iowa 1033 | Iowa | 1920
Other evidence was adduced, tending to show that the accused was of good character, and that the death of the child Avas caused by the administration of poison, or by strangulation.
Such is the evidence upon which the finding of guilt rests. We are of opinion that it was insufficient to Avarrant the conclusion that the accused committed the crime charged. Though she may have said that “we smothered,” this appears to have had reference to the cause of the child’s death, and not to have been intended as saying that this Avas purposely done. If guilty at all, this must have been in abetting, advising, aiding, or encouraging; for nothing in the record indicates any physical violence on her part. Even if it were conceded that the obligation to protect her child did Avarrant the conclusion that, if present, and making no effort to do so, she must have been found to encourage what her husband did,, this Avas obviated by the showing that (1) she Avas not consciously present, and (2) that, though consciously present, there Avas no evidence that she did not meet the obligation mentioned. She testified that she was asleep during the period when her husband must have murdered the child, and this was corroborated by the latter. This was uncontradicted, and even though rejected by the jury, a different statement of facts was not shown from which the inference is to be draAvn that she Avas present in the room AA'here the offense aauis committed, or that, if present, she did not meet the obligation AAdiich both nature and the Iuav imposed upon her. Neither he nor anyone else test!
Tiie judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.— Reversed and remanded.