Felony murder covers the case of an unintended death during the commission of a felony. Like the getaway driver accidentally runs over someone as you’re fleeing the bank robbery. But, also like one of the bank customers has a heart attack and dies during the robbery. Both can be felony murder. Obviously, the latter is a bit more of a prosecutorial reach than the former.
In this case, a bunch of people attacked the police during the commission of a crime, and one of the police died. There has to be another felony in there somewhere (assaulting a cop?). I’d be shocked if they aren’t looking to throw the book at these guys.
There’s also the element of collective guilt in at least some implementations. e.g. a bank robber shoots a guard, but the driver is still guilty of murder despite not even being present.
Thanks all for the explanations.
In Criminal Law, the example my professor used was, the criminal is robbing a liquor store, and the owner of the store fires a shot, which hits and kills a bystander. Still felony murder.
ShivaX
6704
If you do something to assault me and then I die, odds are really, really high you’re looking at a murder charge. Especially if said assault happened during the commission of a crime. And I was a police officer trying to stop you.
We’ll know once the autopsy comes out, but odds are pretty low that Sicknick just fell over dead for reasons unrelated to Jan 6th.
This is also a strong possibility.
Houngan
6705
Yeah, first spraying someone with pepper spray is at least assault, mitigated by whether you had reason to do so because they were assaulting you. Considering he’s a cop protecting the Congress that’s already out the window. So now you’ve assaulted someone and then they die because of your assault. That’s 3rd degree murder if television has taught me anything (it hasn’t.) And then you get into premeditation, recklessness, etc.
Gripping hand, fuck 'em, let’s see some consequences that chill the next internet dumbshittery get quashed from raw fear.
Absolutely.
This is the case that best unites Americans. A significant number of the Hard Right would say that (white) Americans own the Capitol, and a significant number of other right wingers would say that these people had reasonable cause to think the election had been stolen. So invading the Capitol would be pretty much okay. And that might include running over the police on the way in.
But to plan and carry out an assault on police officers, leading to their death? Even among total assholes, very few people would excuse that. So this is the case that they are going to make front and center in an attempt to unite people against right wing extremism.
I mean, if we have to walk that kind of a tightrope to make an argument for prosecuting a fucking insurrection, I’d say the Republic is doomed anyway.
Actual article. (spoiler, he was apparently off his meds):
Menzo
6712
“Totally peaceful crowd”
“Blue lives matter!”
OMG OMG OMG - it was right in front of us all the time! Pat-riots
If you haven’t already, listen to this week’s All The Presidents Lawyers podcast. Ken & Josh spend a lot of time on the riot.
- the “hit rate” of arrestees from the riot is really high, all things considered.
- They’re clearly using some sort of rubric to decide whom to charge and whom to not bother with. Either it’s evidentiary in nature, or related to what someone who entered the building actually may have done once inside. (Might be a bit of both, to be honest.)
- The quality of the evidence against those who have been charged is much better than you’d normally get from a large-scale riot. In fact, it’s probably better evidence than you’d get from some other large-scale mob action, where typically the prosecution is calling police officers who are trying to identify people on the witness stand who may have been wearing coats, masks, hats, etc. at the time…and the prosecution knows their case kind of sucks and will have to make plea deals for probation/fines/time served. The video evidence, photographic evidence and self-incrimination/confession evidence they’ve got from January 6 means that the prosecutors can essentially throw the book at many of these folks. It doesn’t get said explicitly on the podcast, but it sounds like they if they’d somehow made mass arrests on January 6, they might have more total arrests…but a lot more weak cases and fewer actual eventual consequences.
- Since it now seems as if the evidence in Officer Sicknick’s death is at best inconclusive that there was anything like blunt force trauma involved, the two people arrested for assaulting him with bear spray are unlikely to have the officer’s death even mentioned at their trials – at least officially or offered as part of the procedure. Until, that is, the sentencing phase. Then the officer’s death is likely to loom large as a potential consequence of their actions when seeking to maximize the sentence against the two people charged.
ShivaX
6717
Sorry honey, I know you work with the Feds, but I’m running off to DC with Ken to do the treasons.
I can’t believe the Spiderweb Software guy managed to get involved in this. He seemed like such a nice fellow.
Enjoy your ten year sentence, God, Guns, Trump.
Thrag
6721
“Their boat struck a log while night fishing and their boat capsized.”
More like a lager.
Though seriously, capsize, from striking a log. That does not totally add up.
