- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
A man who attempted to vote twice in Virginia’s 2023 election was acquitted of attempted illegal voting on Monday, following his claims in court that he had been testing the system for voter fraud.
A Nelson County jury found 67-year-old Richardson Carter Bell Jr. not guilty of attempting to vote more than once in the same election. According to the Washington Post, Bell, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, admitted voting early at his local registrar’s office only to also show up at a nearby polling place on Election Day.
Rob a liquor store with an unloaded gun but someone present has a heart attack? Murder.
Rob a liquor store with an unloaded gun but the guy behind the counter pulls out a loaded one and kills your accomplise? Also murder.
Buy some heroin for you and your partner to use, leading you both to overdose, but you survive? Believe it or not, also murder.
e; Whether or not you think these make sense is beside the point, it’s an obvious double standard when the lack of intent doesn’t matter for these crimes but it gets this guy a walk
The first one I can kind of agree with tbh.
The second one too. If you’re committing a crime and someone dies as a direct result of that crime, it’s on you.
The hard part is that “direct” is subjective and up to interpretation of the court.
Depends on the state. In mine it doesn’t matter. If someone dies while you’re committing a crime, you’re responsible regardless.
I would say the person doing the crime himself is to blame for his own death. I think there’s a difference between an accomplice and an innocent dying.
But its a fine line, I agree, and also depends on other variables. If I start applying it to other examples:
If you are trespassing in a train tunnel doing graffiti, the train comes and you get out but your buddy gets hit, is it murder? I’d say not really.
If you’re racing and your buddy hits a tree, it’s not really murder either yet he wouldn’t of been racing alone. It’s a two player sport so I’d tend to say guilty.
Would your buddy have stayed home instead of robbing the store if you weren’t there to help him, it’s hard to say but I’d tend to go not guilty.
It also seems a bit vindictive but like I said, I understand the sentiment.
Usually the line is when someone dies in the commission of a felony.
No, because it isn’t proportional.
A homeless man stealing a bottle of water with a security guard shooting up half the store due to bad aim as a result should not be charged for murder.
Besides, murder should always require intent to kill. Robbery - including armed robbery - does not usually imply this.
Those are two separate crime scenarios. The homeless person couldn’t be charged with murder.
What if we alter the scenario slightly?
The homeless man ran “aggressively” through the checkouts (without paying for the water bottle of course) and the police “believed” he had a knife to force his way through. Water bottles sure look like knifes sometimes after all.
I’m fairly certain the homeless man would be charged with felony murder if the police shot bystanders (and the homeless man survived).
But these make sense. If someone is harmed in the process of you committing a crime, you are at least partly responsible for that harm. I agree with these, but I can see how they can be weaponized as well
I’d be fine with a conviction for armed robbery in either of those first two scenarios (and would excuse the store clerk from any charges because they didn’t know the weapon was unloaded so it’s reasonable self defense), but not murder. If we make everything a murder charge it just increases the incentive for robbers not to leave any witnesses.
(On the other hand, if you rob someone with a loaded gun and just say you never intended to actually hurt anyone I could probably be persuaded to call it attempted murder).