People v. Knoller

Facts

Knoller (P) brought two large PresaCanario dogs, which are fierce combat or watch dogs, over 100 pounds and these also were known for preying on sheep and other animals, of which the Knollers were warned. They were also warned by a vet that the dogs were a liability since this type of dog had attacked a boy a little while before, causing the loss of the boy’s arm and mutilation of his face. The Knollers were thinking of starting up a commercial dog-breeding business called “Dog-O-War”, and one of the dogs was called “Bringer of Death; Ruin; Destruction”. The dogs threatened other humans or dogs, or were otherwise out of control, around 30 times in less than a year. The Knollers treated these complaints about other dogs being threatened with indifference. Afterwards, the dogs fatally mauled Whipple, a neighbor across the hall. Another neighbor who heard her cries for help called 911, and she also heard a voice yelling, “No, no, no” and “Get off.” The emergency team found typical predatory animal injuries on the injured Whipple – lacerations of the jugular vein and carotid artery and crushing of the larynx, among 77 separate injuries. She succumbed in a short time. Knoller faced a charge of second-degree murder on the ground of implied malice. She pleaded that she was not aware that the dogs were vicious as she had not read any literature on them, she had not noticed anything wrong with their personalities and she had neither received nor ignored warnings about their threatening behavior. Thus, she stated, she never had reasonable ground to expect that the dogs would kill anybody. The jury received court instruction that to find a verdict of guilty, they would have to find that she was aware that her actions posed a high probability of death to another person. The jury found her guilty, but the court found that she lacked the necessary knowledge and so granted a new trial. The intermediate court of appeals reversed the verdict on the ground that implied malice requires only that a defendant consciously ignore the risk of serious bodily injury to another. The case was remanded to the trial court. Knoller appealed, and the case was reviewed by the state supreme court.