• zurohki@aussie.zone
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    3 days ago

    IIRC there’s some situations where you’re considered responsible if anybody dies. So if you break into a house to steal something and the homeowner hears you, runs down the stairs, trips and breaks their neck it counts as if you murdered them.

    • kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 days ago

      It gets worse. One guy went to prison for felony murder because the police shot and killed his fellow burglar. Another got a life sentence without parole for lending his car keys to his roommate, who then used the car to commit a burglary where someone was killed. John Oliver did a segment on this not too long ago.

    • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      That sounds reasonable to me. They took a criminal action that resulted in a death. It was their commission of the crime that killed that person.

      • zurohki@aussie.zone
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        1 day ago

        Well, no, because murder isn’t just killing someone. It’s the motives and circumstances around the death. That’s why murder, manslaughter, reckless endangerment causing death, etc are all separate crimes.

        • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          This is not a compelling argument. Each of the types of charges you can recieve for killing a person is defined by the law. The federal government and the majority of state governments have passed laws defining what constitutes felony murder. Juat like they codified laws defining manslaughter and first degree murder.

          • zurohki@aussie.zone
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            1 day ago

            Yes, and the disconnect between what they wrote into law and what people consider to be real is why people are asking if it was felony murder or real murder. Because there’s a reason why we made all those different charges, and writing down that littering is now felony murder doesn’t make it real.

            • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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              23 hours ago

              writing down that littering is now felony murder doesn’t make it real.

              Well if we’re just saying nonsense I don’t see why it can’t make it real. Especially considering it is real, codified into law, and often used. That sounds very real

    • kautau@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Which definitely shouldn’t be murder, but manslaughter makes sense. Your unethical actions non-deliberately caused someone’s death

      • LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        Isn’t that textbook definition of (negligent) manslaughter in civilised countries? You did something that resulted in the death of someone, but it was not your intention to do so and it you could not reasonably assume that your actions would kill someone?

      • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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        3 days ago

        isn’t the difference here supposed to be the level of danger/lethality/intent?

        like if you burn someone’s house down with them inside, vs quietly breaking in to steal shit. if you burn down a house that probably has people in it, that’s murder even if it wasn’t 100% intentional, you should have known that was a likely outcome

    • petersr@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Yeah, that kind of manslaughter shouldn’t get you grounded on Tinder! Especially if it is only a small rubbery.