The Ohio Revised Code vehicular homicide statute (Section 2903.06) About 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 24, 1975, a white man about 34 years old came out of a store and walked toward his car. Siegfried Golston, a 19-year-old African American man, tiptoed up behind the victim and hit him on the head with a baseball bat. A witness testified to the sound made by Golston’s blow to the victim’s head: “Just like you hit a wet, you know, like a bat hit a wet baseball; that’s how it sounded.” Golston then went into a building, changed his clothes, and crossed the street to the store, where he worked. When asked why he had hit the man, Golston replied, “For kicks.” The victim later died. Was this “atrocious murder” a form of first-degree murder that qualified Golston for the death penalty?

Decision

According to the Court:

There was evidence of great and unusual violence in the blow, which caused a four-inch cut on the side of the skull. There was also evidence that after he was struck the victim fell to the street, and that five minutes later he tried to get up, staggered to his feet and fell again to the ground. He was breathing very hard, and a neighbor wiped vomit from his nose and mouth. Later, according to the testimony, the defendant said he did it, “For kicks.” There is no requirement that the defendant know that his act was extremely atrocious or cruel, and no requirement of deliberate premeditation. A murder may be committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty even though death results from a single blow. Indifference to the victim’s pain, as well as actual knowledge of it and taking pleasure in it, is cruelty; and extreme cruelty is only a higher degree of cruelty.

Do you agree with the court that this was first-degree murder? When you’re defending your answer, consider James F. Stephen’s, English Judge and criminal law reformer.