A man assualts a woman, she dies of her injuries. Murder?

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Flubber, the delay isn't TOTALLY irrelevent. Old England law had a rule where if the person died after a year and a day of the incident, the proximate cause wasn't satisfied. Most jurisdictions have done away with the rule, but some states have a restriction (Washington state has a three years and a day rule).

In Canada, the delay would be totally irrelevant . .. If I understand you correctly, the delay in the US would be irrelevant in most states but there would be some where a person could avoid murder charges if their victim lingered long enough

[Spiffor]

Imran:
In France, we have the xharge of "violence resulting in death without lethal intent", which is not the same charge as simplw murder (murder is understood as the intent of killing someone in the first place). Is there no distinction of the sort in the US?

[notyoueither]

Sometime later, she does die of injuries she sustained in the assault. Is the man guilty of murder

You need to ask?

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Imran:
In France, we have the xharge of "violence resulting in death without lethal intent", which is not the same charge as simplw murder (murder is understood as the intent of killing someone in the first place). Is there no distinction of the sort in the US?

Manslaughter, but that is hard to imagine applying to a woman battered to death by a man.

[notyoueither]

Unless she was unusually pugnacious.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Flubber
In Canada, the delay would be totally irrelevant . .. If I understand you correctly, the delay in the US would be irrelevant in most states but there would be some where a person could avoid murder charges if their victim lingered long enough

Yeah, in a few they have a time limit, based on old English common law. I guess the justification is that if after 3 years and a day (in English common law it used to be a year and a day), the original injury wasn't a proximate cause of the death.


Spiffor, nye has it correct. It'd be called manslaughter. But wouldn't be appropriate here.

[Ned]

Well, Furman investigated the "Kennedy clan" murder, published a book and a 20-year old case was reopened. It resulted in a conviction of a person who was not really a suspect originally.

I have an idea of what Furman is going to say. I suspect his book will be sensational.

Imran, interesting points on the "English" common law linkage between injury and death. I suspect, though, that Florida follows Roman law, having been a former possession of Spain. If this is the case, if it is not in the Florida statutes, the defense does not exist.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Um... Florida is NOT Louisiana. Florida has adopted the English common law. The only state which isn't common law is the aforementioned Louisiana, which follows civil law which the French gave it.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Um... Florida is NOT Louisiana. Florida has adopted the English common law. The only state which isn't common law is the aforementioned Louisiana, which follows civil law which the French gave it.

Add Kalifornia.

[Dinner]

They had a case like this. A woman was beat into a brain dead state by her abusive husband and her parents wanted her to be taken off of the machines and laid to rest. The husband was told by his attorney that if she died he'd get a much worse sentence so he fights to keep her on the machine.

It was FUBAR.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Define "sometime later".

If it is sortly after, it is murder.

Did she die solely of injuries sustained in the battery or was it something else?

Basically, if she died of injuries related to the assault, even if its been a year or so, it STILL is murder.

Imran, doesn´t murder have to be pre-meditated?


Edit: Missed Spiffors post...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Ned
Add Kalifornia.

California is ALSO a common law state. It just also has a good number of statutes.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Dr Zoidberg
Imran, doesn�t murder have to be pre-meditated?

From the OP, I took it to mean that the guy assaulted her without it being a heat of passion type of thing.

[Urban Ranger]

You miss the most important part Ned, namely intent.

[JohnT]

Here's another one, likely more inflammatory:

If you get a girl drunk with the intent of having sex with her, is it rape?

I vote: yes.