Connecticut § 53-20 - Cruelty to persons.

§ 53-20. Cruelty to persons.

Sec. 53-20. Cruelty to persons. (a)(1) Any person who intentionally tortures, torments or cruelly or unlawfully punishes another person or intentionally deprives another person of necessary food, clothing, shelter or proper physical care shall be guilty of a class D felony.

(2) Any person who, with criminal negligence, deprives another person of necessary food, clothing, shelter or proper physical care shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

(b) (1) Any person who, having the control and custody of any child under the age of nineteen years, in any capacity whatsoever, intentionally maltreats, tortures, overworks or cruelly or unlawfully punishes such child or intentionally deprives such child of necessary food, clothing or shelter shall be guilty of a class D felony.

(2) Any person who, having the control and custody of any child under the age of nineteen years, in any capacity whatsoever, with criminal negligence, deprives such child of necessary food, clothing or shelter shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

(1949 Rev., S. 8368; P.A. 05-72, S. 1; P.A. 13-258, S. 111.)

History: P.A. 05-72 designated existing provisions re cruelty to any person as Subsec. (a)(1) and amended said Subsec. to add “intentionally” as the mens rea for the offense of torturing, tormenting or cruelly or unlawfully punishing another person, replace “wilfully” with “intentionally” as the mens rea for the offense of depriving another person of necessary food, clothing, shelter or proper physical care, and increase the penalty for such intentional acts to a fine of not more than $5,000 or imprisonment of not more than 5 years or both, reenacted existing provisions re negligently depriving another person of necessary food, clothing, shelter or proper physical care and the penalty therefor as Subsec. (a)(2) and amended those provisions by replacing “negligently” with “with criminal negligence” as the mens rea for such offense, designated existing provisions re cruelty to a child as Subsec. (b)(1) and amended said Subsec. to make provisions applicable to a child under 19 years of age rather than under 16 years of age, add “intentionally” as the mens rea for the offense of maltreating, torturing, overworking or cruelly or unlawfully punishing a child, replace “wilfully” with “intentionally” as the mens rea for the offense of depriving a child of necessary food, clothing or shelter and increase the penalty for such intentional acts to a fine of not more than $5,000 or imprisonment of not more than 5 years or both, reenacted existing provisions re negligently depriving a child of necessary food, clothing or shelter and the penalty therefor as Subsec. (b)(2) and amended those provisions by making them applicable to a child under 19 years of age rather than under 16 years of age and replacing “negligently” with “with criminal negligence” as the mens rea for such offense; P.A. 13-258 changed penalty from fine of not more than five thousand dollars or imprisonment of not more than 5 years to a class D felony in Subsecs. (a)(1) and (b)(1), and made technical changes.

Formerly, trial justice could take final jurisdiction of offense against section. 115 C. 600. The word “unlawfully” does not connote “inhuman or barbarous treatment”, but should be construed within the rule of statutory construction that a general word, following a particular enumeration, is intended to apply only to matters of the same general character. 165 C. 288.

Defendant possessed the mental state required for conviction because she intended to do the proscribed act; conviction requires proof of general intent. 131 CA 65; judgment affirmed, see 308 C. 835.

Cited. 26 CS 316; 37 CS 664.

Cited. 4 Conn. Cir. Ct. 571. Evidence that defendant, mother of premature twin babies, failed to obtain medical aid or other care for them was sufficient to support jury's verdict holding her guilty of crime of cruelty to persons upon death of one and severe illness of other child. 5 Conn. Cir. Ct. 698.