Ramirez v. State

Summary

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Ramirez’s malice-murder conviction for allowing her elderly mother to die after prolonged, severe, and untreated neglect. The court held that the evidence permitted the jury to infer malice from Ramirez’s exclusive caregiving role, her awareness of her mother’s deteriorating condition, and the treatable conditions that caused the death, even without evidence of physical violence. The court applied the sufficiency-of-the-evidence standard and deferred to the jury’s credibility determinations.