Background
A Kenosha County jury convicted Reginald D. Hunter of two counts of intentional child abuse involving his then-8-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. It acquitted him of two strangulation counts. The circuit court imposed consecutive sentences of five years on each child-abuse count, including two years of initial confinement and three years of extended supervision.
The charges arose after Hunter took his daughter’s electronic devices at bedtime. The children testified that Hunter grabbed their necks, shoved, punched, and otherwise hurt them. Hunter denied physically harming them but testified that he held the children apart and back when they tried to retrieve the phone. The evidence also showed that the son kicked Hunter in the groin and the daughter struck him in the head with a rock.
The Court’s Holding
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals reversed and remanded for a new trial. It held that the circuit court erred by refusing to instruct the jury on the privilege of reasonable parental discipline and on self-defense.
Viewed in the light most favorable to Hunter, the evidence supported a finding that he used non-strangling force to enforce household device rules or to respond to the children’s physical actions. The circuit court improperly weighed competing testimony when it denied the instructions. The errors were not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, particularly because the jury acquitted Hunter of strangulation and could have credited some of his account.
Key Takeaways
- A defendant is entitled to a requested affirmative-defense instruction when evidence supports it, even if the evidence is weak, disputed, or of doubtful credibility.
- Courts may not reject a defense instruction by resolving factual conflicts or weighing witness credibility; those are jury functions.
- An acquittal on related strangulation charges supported the conclusion that omitted parental-discipline and self-defense instructions may have affected the child-abuse verdicts.
Why It Matters
The decision underscores Wisconsin’s low evidentiary threshold for privilege-based jury instructions. Where the record permits a reasonable view that a parent used force to discipline a child or to stop physical interference, the jury—not the court—must decide whether the privilege applies.