• mkwt@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The thing that’s fucked is not the idea of chains of causation. Courts deal with that all the time.

      The fucked up part about felony murder in many states is that it bypasses mens rea or intent elements and jumps straight to murder 1 sentencing.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        No. You can see in this very case. Our guy robbed the place but he wasn’t the one who decided to charge the police with a gun. That was the proximate cause of the officer shooting and one person made that decision. If we’re going to go further back then where do we stop? His parents? His teachers? His community center sports coach? His friends who weren’t present? After all we’re talking about decisions leading to decisions now. What was the deep cause of the cop firing his weapon? Did his dad get fired, requiring the family to find money in other places? Do we charge the dad’s former boss in that case? After all in that theory case our guy wouldn’t have been at the robbery at all without that firing.

        Blaming anything or anyone not involved in the act is the height of rationalization for longer sentences brought by racists and executives in the prison industry.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          He wasn’t the one who charged the police but he took part in the crime that lead to that act, he could have stopped the crime from happening or not taken part in it, he chose to join in and that resulted in the death of his friend, he’s responsible for it by being an informed party, just like anyone who knew they were planning it and that didn’t denounce them before it happened.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Oh yes, so we should also arrest anyone who plausibly knew they would commit this crime and charge them with murder too. /s

            There was one person who made the decision to fire a gun and it wasn’t this guy.