Big scary murderers
Client is a 17-year-old boy walking in a park with his 17-year-old friend and his mother. All three of them come upon client's 15-year-old sister, and it appears that she was having sex with some guy in the park bathroom. The mother is furious and tells the client to go after the guy.
Client and his buddy go into the bathroom to confront the guy. Client demands that the guy empty his pockets because, client says, he wanted to see if there were any condoms in the guy's pockets. All the guy had in his pockets was a couple of dollars, which he dropped to the floor.
After emptying his pockets the guy takes off running. Client chases after him. Client's friend stays behind and pockets the money that had been left on the bathroom floor.
As client is chasing after the guy, the guy trips and falls into a body of water at the park. It turns out that this guy doesn't know how to swim, so he starts struggling in the water. Client actually jumps in to try to get the guy out of the water, but the guy ends up drowning.
Both client and his friend are charged with felony-murder. Felony-murder is a death that occurs as part of committing a felony. (For example, when somebody robs a liquor store and ends up killing the store clerk, the shooting death is a felony-murder. Murder generally requires "malice aforethought," but in the case of felony-murder, the intent to commit just the felony makes you culpable for the death that results from it.)
The underlying felony? Client told the guy to empty his pockets, and the friend took the two dollars that had been in the guy's pocket. For this, both boys are charged with felony strong-arm robbery of the guy in the bathroom. When the guy falls into the water and drowns, the death is the "result" of the felony, because it occurred as the guy was running away from the "robbers."
The friend has already been tried (as an adult) and convicted of murder. Our client is awaiting trial. Client's mother and sister do not visit him in jail.
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Update on August 2, 2005:
I usually don't respond online to comments, because I think it's better to let people say what they want without interfering. But in the interest of accuracy, I'm pasting in part of an anonymous comment made about this post that corrects my flawed example of felony-murder:
"Your felony murder example was a bit off, what you described would most likely be murder in the first degree with special circumstances (shooting the clerk during an armed robbery). Had the clerk been pushed away from the register, tripped, fallen and broken his neck resulting in death, THAT would be a felony murder."
Thank you, anonymous commenter!
While I'm at it, I'll add, in response to the same commenter, that I believe the reason that the client's family does not visit him is because his family sucks. To be fair, a lot of members of inmates' families don't have the flexibility to leave their jobs in the middle of the day, during the idiosyncratic hours the guards allow visits, to see their loved ones. In this case, though, the family seems to see the client as dispensable. Given that he was acting at their behest when he got into trouble in the first place, their betrayal seems extra sucky.
I don't want anybody to think that I see this client as an angel--he was, after all, going to kick the crap out of some guy in a park for having consensual sex with his sister. But he's not a murderer, and neither is the friend who took the money. At the risk of stating what I think is the obvious, these two people are being punished far out of proportion to their actions.
Client and his buddy go into the bathroom to confront the guy. Client demands that the guy empty his pockets because, client says, he wanted to see if there were any condoms in the guy's pockets. All the guy had in his pockets was a couple of dollars, which he dropped to the floor.
After emptying his pockets the guy takes off running. Client chases after him. Client's friend stays behind and pockets the money that had been left on the bathroom floor.
As client is chasing after the guy, the guy trips and falls into a body of water at the park. It turns out that this guy doesn't know how to swim, so he starts struggling in the water. Client actually jumps in to try to get the guy out of the water, but the guy ends up drowning.
Both client and his friend are charged with felony-murder. Felony-murder is a death that occurs as part of committing a felony. (For example, when somebody robs a liquor store and ends up killing the store clerk, the shooting death is a felony-murder. Murder generally requires "malice aforethought," but in the case of felony-murder, the intent to commit just the felony makes you culpable for the death that results from it.)
The underlying felony? Client told the guy to empty his pockets, and the friend took the two dollars that had been in the guy's pocket. For this, both boys are charged with felony strong-arm robbery of the guy in the bathroom. When the guy falls into the water and drowns, the death is the "result" of the felony, because it occurred as the guy was running away from the "robbers."
The friend has already been tried (as an adult) and convicted of murder. Our client is awaiting trial. Client's mother and sister do not visit him in jail.
----
Update on August 2, 2005:
I usually don't respond online to comments, because I think it's better to let people say what they want without interfering. But in the interest of accuracy, I'm pasting in part of an anonymous comment made about this post that corrects my flawed example of felony-murder:
"Your felony murder example was a bit off, what you described would most likely be murder in the first degree with special circumstances (shooting the clerk during an armed robbery). Had the clerk been pushed away from the register, tripped, fallen and broken his neck resulting in death, THAT would be a felony murder."
Thank you, anonymous commenter!
While I'm at it, I'll add, in response to the same commenter, that I believe the reason that the client's family does not visit him is because his family sucks. To be fair, a lot of members of inmates' families don't have the flexibility to leave their jobs in the middle of the day, during the idiosyncratic hours the guards allow visits, to see their loved ones. In this case, though, the family seems to see the client as dispensable. Given that he was acting at their behest when he got into trouble in the first place, their betrayal seems extra sucky.
I don't want anybody to think that I see this client as an angel--he was, after all, going to kick the crap out of some guy in a park for having consensual sex with his sister. But he's not a murderer, and neither is the friend who took the money. At the risk of stating what I think is the obvious, these two people are being punished far out of proportion to their actions.
posted by P.D. Clerk at 11:19 AM
4 Comments:
Not sure what I think here; I'd have to examine more of the facts. He probably doesn't seem like a big scary murderer these days, but to a scared kid having sex with his 15yo sister, he was probably pretty scary. The robbery thing seems weak, but who really knows. Guess that's what the jury is for.
Glad you're back to posting, I was considering deleting you from favorites. Better cull some stories from your peers while you're busy with that death penalty case - and good luck.
So glad you are back - I love reading your blog although now that I think about it I'm not sure why I should thrill to being confronted with the heinous injustices commited by the judicial system in the district/county/city/state you work for (and therefore probably everywhere). Maybe it's a 'there but for the grace of God' thing. I'm going to have to think about that but for now please keep posting because we really do love you!
thanks for posting again!
Your felony murder example was a bit off, what you described would most likely be murder in the first degree with special circumstances (shooting the clerk during an armed robbery). Had the clerk been pushed away from the register, tripped, fallen and broken his neck resulting in death, THAT would be a felony murder.
As to your client, I can't really say. There is a lot there that seems "not quite right". Most notable is the fact that his sister and mother won't visit him in jail. I find that to be very curious if the death of the other young man happened as your client claims it did.
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