## Facts

- Sophia Willis, a single mother, disciplined her eleven-year-old son, J.J., who had a history of lying and taking others’ property.
- A teacher observed J.J. giving a bag of women’s clothing to another student; Willis identified the clothing as hers.
- Willis sent J.J. to her sister’s home for the weekend, then questioned him at length after he returned; J.J denied wrongdoing and repeated an explanation shifting blame to others despite warnings of punishment for lying.
- Willis instructed J.J. to remove his pants and place his hands on an upper bunk bed, then struck him five to seven times with a belt (Willis’s account) or an extension cord (J.J.’s account).
- Willis aimed for J.J.’s buttocks, but some blows landed on his arm and thigh as he moved, leaving bruises.
- The next day J.J. showed the bruises to the school nurse and said he was hit for taking clothes and lying; the nurse contacted child protective services and police.
- Willis was arrested and charged with battery on a child as a Class D felony; after a bench trial she was found guilty, and judgment was entered as a Class A misdemeanor.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Willis’s use of physical discipline exceeded the scope of parental privilege and therefore constituted criminal battery.

## Decision

- The Indiana Supreme Court reversed the conviction.
- The court held the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Willis’s discipline was unreasonable or outside the parental privilege.
- The judgments of the trial court and the Court of Appeals were reversed.

## Legal Principles

- Indiana recognizes a parental privilege permitting reasonable corporal punishment as discipline.
- Whether discipline is privileged depends on context, including the child’s age and condition, the nature of the misconduct, the instrument used, the degree of injury, and the risk of serious or permanent harm.
- The use of an object does not automatically defeat the privilege; proportionality and the severity and risk of injury are central.
- Once parental privilege is raised, the State bears the burden to disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

## Conclusion

The court concluded that five to seven strikes producing non-serious bruising, administered after deliberation and in response to an eleven-year-old’s theft and repeated lying, did not cross the line into criminal battery; because the State did not disprove parental privilege beyond a reasonable doubt, the conviction was set aside.


Willis v. State, 888 N.E.2d 177 (Ind. 2008)