Summary of Keeler v. Superior Court, Supreme Court of California (1970)

Plaintiff: State

Defendant: Keeler; the defendant met his wife, from whom he was about to get a divorce, and observed her advanced stage of pregnancy from another man. The defendant threatened the woman that he was going to “stomp it [the featus]” out of her. The man hit the woman with his knee right to the abdominal area and due to this impact, the featus died. The man was charged with murder and he argued that a featus was not an alive person so he can’t be charged with killing a human being, which the featus was not.

Issue: Should featus be considered a human being which would make the defendant’s act a murder?

Holding: No

Legal Reasoning: The court held that at the time the California Legislature made statue 187 which defined murder, it intended only killing of human beings to be considered as murders. The court ruled that the defendant can’t be charged with murder because at the time he committed the assult, the featus was not legally considered a human being. The court held that extending the statue now to include featus to the category of human being would deprive the defendant of his due process and it would be considered expost facto punishment. The court reversed the charges of murder against the defendant.