## Facts

- Leonard Hall fired a gun at someone standing in a crowd across the street, missed, and struck a woman who was about 30 weeks pregnant.
- The gunshot injury severed the placenta, cutting off the fetus’s oxygen supply.
- Doctors performed an emergency Caesarean section and delivered the baby.
- Physicians who treated or examined the baby stated that she was born alive and met the criteria for a live birth; a birth certificate was filed.
- The baby died about 36 hours after delivery, and the prosecution attributed the death to the oxygen deprivation caused by the placental injury from the shooting.
- Hall disposed of the gun and remained out of sight for several days after the shooting.
- Hall was prosecuted for causing the death of a person born alive, not for causing the death of an unborn fetus.
- The trial judge did not treat a fetus as a “person” under the homicide statutes and did not instruct the jury that it could convict based on the death of a fetus.
- A jury convicted Hall of second-degree manslaughter, and Hall appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence was legally sufficient to prove the victim was a “person” under New York homicide law where the victim was injured in utero, delivered alive, and later died from those injuries.
2. Whether the evidence was legally sufficient to support second-degree manslaughter, including proof of causation between Hall’s shooting and the infant’s death.
3. Whether applying the homicide statutes to these facts failed to give constitutionally adequate notice (due process and equal protection).

## Decision

- The Appellate Division affirmed the judgment of conviction for second-degree manslaughter.
- The court concluded the prosecution proved the infant was born alive and therefore qualified as a “person” for purposes of the homicide provisions.
- The court held the evidence permitted the jury to find that Hall’s conduct caused the infant’s death, even though the fatal injury occurred before birth and the child lived for a short period after delivery.
- The court rejected Hall’s constitutional notice arguments, finding the Penal Law gave adequate warning that this conduct could result in homicide liability when a child is born alive and then dies from the defendant’s act.

## Legal Principles

- A homicide prosecution may proceed where a defendant’s act injures a fetus in utero, the child is later born alive, and the child then dies from those injuries; once born alive, the victim is treated as a “person” under the homicide statutes.
- Live birth may be established through medical testimony and other proof showing independent signs of life after delivery.
- The passage of time between injury and death, and the use of medical treatment, do not necessarily break causation if the defendant’s act remains a sufficiently direct cause of death.
- Due process is satisfied when the statutory scheme, applied to a child born alive who later dies from the defendant’s act, provides fair warning that the conduct is punishable as homicide.

## Conclusion

People v. Hall upheld a second-degree manslaughter conviction where the defendant’s shooting injured a pregnant woman, the baby was delivered alive, and the baby died shortly thereafter from the injury’s effects; the court treated the infant as a “person” under New York homicide law after live birth, found the proof sufficient on causation and live birth, and rejected claims that the Penal Law failed to provide fair notice.


People v. Hall, 557 N.Y.S.2d 879 (1990)