Today, only about a week later, the justice system has already disposed of the case: the girls will endure no prison time, and will be entirely free of court supervision by age 21.
Under D.C. law, one of the girls was young enough that she couldn't have been tried as an adult, but the other was not. I can't imagine two teenage boys murdering someone while carjacking him, showing no remorse and rendering no aid, and it not being treated as an adult crime if possible. The speed with which this case was resolved in their favor is stunning to anyone familiar with the criminal justice system.
UPDATE: On the other hand, perhaps in the present circumstances it's unfair to send any women to prison.
Is is a standard philosophy of our legal system that intent matters (except when the law explicitly says intent does NOT matter. Making it weirder, but...) Had the perps threatened the driver with a "deadly weapon" like a knife or firearm, and an accident ensuing from the crime caused a death, the rule of felony murder would apply.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the choice of using a weapon marketed as "non-lethal" could be argued to show the perps had no deadly intent, and that the ensuing death was PURELY accidental.
The law and morality are not contiguous. Sometimes they're not even parallel.
Their demonstrable intent was to commit assault and battery in order to steal his car. I’d think you could come up with some kind of charge featuring prison time; in fact, I’d expect it to be charged as felony murder if only to force a plea to aggravated assault.
ReplyDeleteYou update was distressing. The difference in assault rates are solid evidence that TW's are not actually women at all, but men with odd thoughts about themselves.
ReplyDeleteI've been watching a lot of law YouTube, and I'm pretty sure the definition of felony murder is if your actions while committing a felony leads to the death of person. So, assault and battery and grand theft auto would be the felonies sufficient to make the man's death felony murder. I don't think there's any need for the perpetrators to have threatened the victim or have even intended to kill him. I believe felony murder is one of the charges Derek Chauvin is facing.
ReplyDeleteLaws vary by state, but that is how it works in Georgia. We had a case of a guy who went outside the bar to engage in a voluntary fistfight with another guy; he knocked that guy down, the guy accidentally hit his head on the curb and died. That guy got charged with felony murder.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the felony, you ask? Aggravated assault. What was the aggravation to the simple assault? Assault with a deadly weapon. It must have been deadly, after all, since the other guy died!
That was just an overcharge to compel a plea to the aggravated assault charge, because the prosecution was then able to get a death-qualified jury and tell the guy they'd put him in the chair if he didn't plea. This case is much more obviously a case of felony murder, because the girls really did intend to commit a felony -- not a misdemeanor, as a simple assault/battery in a mutually-agreed fistfight would normally be.