Idaho v. Carson
Annotate this Case
Defendant Ora Carson was convicted of the murder of his three-month-old son and was sentenced to a fixed life sentence based upon the jury’s finding that he exhibited utter disregard for human life. On appeal, he challenged the trial court’s ruling barring impeachment evidence of the child’s mother, statements made by the prosecuting attorney during closing argument, and the jury instruction defining “utter disregard.” Upon review, the Supreme Court found that Defendant’s trial counsel did not object to the challenged comments: "[b]y the challenged comments, the prosecutor was not expressing a personal opinion regarding the credibility of Mother. Defendant had testified that Mother killed Baby. The prosecutor was merely arguing that Mother’s conduct, as shown by the evidence, was inconsistent with that allegation. The prosecutor and defense counsel are free to argue the evidence and the reasonable inferences that can be drawn from that evidence, even if the evidence argued indicates that a witness is or is not truthful." With regard to the jury instructions given by the trial court, the Supreme Court concluded that Defendant did not present "any logical argument" that the jury would not have understood the meaning of "utter disregard." Accordingly, the Court affirmed the trial court's judgment.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.