• HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    This is basic felony murder shit. Any attorney worth their salt should have been telling him to take the plea deal, because felony murder is a Big Fucking Deal. To be more exact, 46 of 50 states have some version of a felony murder statute, and in 24 of them–just under half–felony murder is a capital crime, and can potentially receive the death penalty.

    A good attorney would be communicating this clearly to their client, and make sure that the client understood that going to trial would likely mean decades in prison, and possibly a death penalty; the odds of beating the charge, if you participated in the underlying crime, are very, very poor.

    Here’s the basic deal: when a deal occurs during the course of committing certain felonies, any major participant in the commission of that crime are guilty of causing that death. If you’re the getaway driver in a bank robbery, and all of the robbers get killed by security guards, you get charged with murder for their deaths, even though it was legal for the security guards to use lethal force against them. Smith was one of the participants in the burglary, and it was during the commission of the burglary that Washington attacked a police officer and was killed. Because Smith was an active participant in that burglary, he’s guilty of that death, even though Washington was justifiably killed by a cop.

    And, BTW, this isn’t bootlicking bullshit. It didn’t need to be a cop that killed Washington for a felony murder charge to apply to Smith. If Washington had attacked the homeowner, and the homeowner had killled Washington, it would have been the same felony murder charge for Smith.

    • azuth@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Garbage in garbage out.

      If you accept US disgusting legal system as fair or ‘normal’ you can justify this outcome. Its obviously not.

      Charging a person with felony murder when no murder was commited is not justice no more than Saudi Arabia executing people for being gay.

      I 'll also give you some personal advice, no non-bootlicker preemptively disclaims being a bootlicker.

      • Madison420@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Exactly. I’m not even particularly opposed if you take part in a violent felony that resulted in death so long as it’s a victims death. Participants dying by accident or by external deadly force especially police use of force getting charged is fucking dumb.

        • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          Why? Just because it feels wrong?

          Their decision to break and enter directly lead to a persons death. Why do make a distinction between who’s life it is?

          If your actions lead to a persons death, you should be charged for it.

          The flip side of this is what? As long as you have others do the murdering you can’t be charged?

          Walk me through why its wrong?

          • Madison420@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Because it is wrong.

            Because police need to be held to a higher standard and everyone is responsible for themselves not anytime else. We have negligent homicide laws for almost every reason that would be covered under my statement.

            Sure. You know there are people in prison who were not even physically there for about crime that wasn’t intended by them to be a violent crime? It’s exceedingly broad.

            No we have independent laws for that as well.

            Morality, is not difficult. If a kid breaks my window playing baseball I don’t go and demand payment from everyone playing, I just talk to the parents of the kid who actually broke the window.