Court upholds drunken driver's murder conviction

[Zkribbler]

"To all habitual drunk drivers who are tempted to test their luck on our roadways: If you drive while intoxicated and take a life, you may spend the rest of your life behind bars," he said.

It's sad that this guy took one life and totally messed up his own. --But what else can you do with a habitual drunk driver? Locking him up for life seems to be the only way to keep him from behind of the wheel of a car.

[SlowwHand]

The same could be said for any murder.

What about a crime of passion? Catch your spouse in your bed with another, and you snap. Not at all planned.
Now, this is where a jury struggles.

Convicting this guy was a no-brainer.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Now, this is where a jury struggles.

They should apply the rule that killing people is a bad thing.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It's usually voluntary manslaughter... Killing people will usually get you into trouble (unless it was a total accident.. or you got away with it), but how much to punish is the question.

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

So in European civil law countries if some idiot was driving up and down sidewalks, but said he had no intention of killing anyway, yet did... you would just leave it at manslaughter? He should have known there was a very substantial risk of his reckless actions leading to someone's death.

I'm no expert, so I can't tell you for sure. But I think, unless the judge/jury finds that the guy drove up and down sidewalks with the purpose of killing someone, it would be manslaughter "under severely dangerous circumstances" - something that aggravates the guilt but is certainly different from murder. It's similar with drunk drivers. They're also supposed to know that they endanger the lives of others - yet they'd hardly get a charge for "murder", because it simply isn't.

[Jon Miller]

if you know what you are doing will likely kill someone

but you do it anyway

then how are you not guilty of murder?

JM

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
The same could be said for any murder.

What about a crime of passion? Catch your spouse in your bed with another, and you snap. Not at all planned.

To me, murder must be premeditated. However, as long as you thought about killing somebody, even for a fraction of a second, before committing the act, that counts.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
I mean what else to do you charge some idiot who is randomly firing his gun into areas where people sometimes walk, and kills someone, but he didn't mean to hurt anyone? Manslaughter? Nah... that's too reckless an act to have such a minor charge attach.

That's why you should keep guns away from citizens

[SlowwHand]

A fraction of a second counts. Makes it easy. All murder has the option of death pnalty.

Case closed.

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
if you know what you are doing will likely kill someone

but you do it anyway

then how are you not guilty of murder?

JM

I reiterate: Think the other way around. Any murder attempt, if it fails, must still be considered on par with murder. So if you consider a death resulting from drunk driving a murder, you'd have to convict all drunk drivers for "attempted murder".
This is not about whether causing a death by stupid behavior is morally better/equally bad/worse than murder, the question is if it is murder.

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
a) A fraction of a second counts. Makes it easy. b) All murder has the option of death pnalty.

Case closed.

For some reason, I fail to see the logical connection between a) and b).


edit: the bold text is result of F***** OTBOT.

edit edit: After editing in the word OTBOT, it changed from "Take this into consideration" to "Don't use my name in vain" and the bold text was gone.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Not his first time to be arrested, and you just have to know there were dozens of times he drove while drunk and didn't get stopped.

There are certainly various things that could be done before this:

1. Somebody who has repeatedly driving drunk probably has a problem, either physiological or psychological. So the state probably should have had an expert looking him over.

2. There are technological solutions to prevent drunk driving. Wire up one of those breath analyser things to the car so it can't start without passing a check. Also put in a governor so the car can't go over 50mph. Put the bill on the guy's tab.

3. You can circumvent the above, but doing so probably is some nasty felony offence. So I don't think anybody sane would do it.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
A fraction of a second counts.

There is a difference between the following two scenario:

1. You come home in the evening and found your wife in bed with another man. You get angry, point a gun at him, think to yourself "Die, bloody bastard!" and pull the trigger.

2. You come home in the evening and found your wife in bed with another man. You get angry, point a gun at him, starts yelling, and something your wife/the other guy says pushes you over the edge, so you pull the trigger.

1 is murder, 2 is not.

[Asher]

How Is That Being Grossly Reckless? There Is No Duty To Aid People Unless You Are Start To Help Or Caused The Injury.

IIRC, it is a crime not to help somebody in need in Canada (ie, not aiding a dying man). Don't think it's murder, but manslaughter maybe.

[Asher]

You come home in the evening and found your wife in bed with another man. You get angry, point a gun at him, starts yelling, and something your wife/the other guy says pushes you over the edge, so you pull the trigger.

1 is murder, 2 is not.

How the hell is that not murder?

If I shot you dead for your BS you spew here all the time, that's not murder? Oh, I wish...

Here in the civilized west, murder is really just the unlawful killing of a person by another.