Keeler v. Superior Court
California judicial decision
Keeler v. Superior Court, Supreme Court of California, 2 Cal. 3d 619 (1970), is a criminal case in which a man who deliberately killed a viable fetus in a woman, was determined not to be guilty of murder because the murder statute was written in 1850 when "human being" meant a person born alive, so there was no fair warning (legality), there being no common law crimes in California whereby statutory definitions can be changed by judicial decisions to broaden categories of crimes.
Background
Robert Harrison Keeler and Teresa Keeler divorced after 16 years of marriage on September 27, 1968. Mr. Keeler was given custody their two daughters, aged 12 and 13 years which Mrs. Keeler had the right to take on alternating weekends. Unknown to Mr. Keeler, in the summer after the divorce Mrs. Keeler met Ernest Vogt, started living with him in Stockton, California and was pregnant with a baby girl by Mr.
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