{{Short description|1932 Indiana Supreme Court Case}} {{one source|date=March 2022}} {{Use American English|date=September 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}} {{Infobox court case |name = Stephenson v. State |court = Indiana Supreme Court |image = Seal of the Indiana Supreme Court.jpg |imagesize = |imagelink = |imagealt = |caption = |full name = Stephenson v. State of Indiana |date decided = {{start date|1932|01|19}} |citations = {{law report|179|N.E.|633}}; 205 Ind. 141 |ECLI = |transcripts = |judges = David Myers, Julius Travis, Clarence R. Martin, Curtis Roll, Walter Treanor |number of judges = 5 |decision by = ''Per curiam'' |concurring = Myers, Travis, Roll |dissenting = |concur/dissent = Treanor, Martin |prior actions = |appealed from = |appealed to = |subsequent actions = |related actions = |opinions = |keywords = <!-- {{Hlist|...}} --> |italic title = }} '''''Stephenson v. State''''', Indiana Supreme Court, 179 N.E. 633 (Ind. 1932), is a criminal case involving causation in criminal law, significant for its political and legal consequences.<ref name=CL>''Criminal Law Cases and Materials'', 7th ed. 2012, John Kaplan, Robert Weisberg, Guyora Binder</ref> In 1925, David Curtiss Stephenson, leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana abducted Madge Oberholtzer, injured her, and repeatedly raped her.<ref name=CL/> She ingested poison and later died. Publicity for the case may have reversed ascendency of the Klan nationally.<ref name=CL/> The case is legally significant in that it found "if a defendant engaged in the commission of a felony such as rape... inflicts upon his victim both physical and mental injuries, the natural and probable result of which would render the deceased mentally irresponsible and suicide followed, we think he would be guilty of murder".<ref name=CL/>
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Indiana state case law Category:U.S. state criminal case law Category:1932 in Indiana Category:Murder in Indiana Category:Ku Klux Klan in Indiana Category:20th-century American trials Category:Suicide in the United States Category:1932 in United States case law Category:Murder trials in the United States Category:Trials in Indiana Category:United States murder case law
{{US-case-law-stub}}