Author Topic: Am I reading this wrong?  (Read 1743 times)

AZRedhawk44

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Am I reading this wrong?
« on: December 18, 2011, 08:45:48 PM »
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/12/18/man-charged-in-brooklyn-womans-burning-death/

Some looneytunes guy burns a woman to death in an elevator.


He gets caught.

Po-po charge him with 2 charges of murder, and arson.


I say:

1. Great.  Charge him.  If found guilty, he can ride the lightning.  And, I even see the rationale for the arson charge along with the murder charge.

2.  But, I don't see the rationale for 2 charges of murder.  Only 1 person was killed.  Only 1 person was in the elevator.  This is like the helicopter crash in Phoenix a couple years back, where the chopper pilots for the nooz crashed into each other while trying to film a high speed chase... then charging the driver on the ground with the murder of the nooz chopper pilots.  Flagrant disrespect of the application of charges, to sate some sort of bastardized communal bloodlust.
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wmenorr67

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Re: Am I reading this wrong?
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2011, 08:48:32 PM »
Probably Murder 1 and Murder 2.

Cover all bases.
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vaskidmark

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Re: Am I reading this wrong?
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2011, 06:55:06 AM »
Probably Murder 1 and Murder 2.

Cover all bases.

Paging Mr. Hamford, Mr. Ned Hamford.  Please pick up the nearest white courtesy phone.

Thinking Murder 1 and Murder 2 suggests NY does not do the "lesser included offense" thing.  Could that be?

And if you are going to play the game of stacking charges, what about all the other folks in the building he almost could have killed [sic]?

stay safe.
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Jamie B

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Re: Am I reading this wrong?
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2011, 07:39:37 AM »
The *expletive deleted*bag in custody claims that he owed him $2,000 for work he had done for her.

Hopefully, he has an accident by being set on fire and dying while incarcerated......
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T.O.M.

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Re: Am I reading this wrong?
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2011, 10:19:07 AM »
Can't tell you without reading the indictment, but it's a common practice to charge a crime under alternate theories.  Many criminal statutes have different versions, like in Ohio Burglary can be by force, by stealth, or by deception.  In some instances, you charge two counts, one by force (like forcing open a window) or by stealth (sneaking through an open window) if you don't know for certain which you can prove...was the widow open to start, or was it forced open.  It allows the prosecutor to offer up two theories of the crime and get the conviction if the evidence at trial supports one and not the other.
If the person is convicted of both counts, the doctrine of merger applies, and the two allied offenses merge into a single charge for which the person is then sentenced.  It's not stacking charges, it's kind of the prosecutor's equivilent of carrying a back-up gun.

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Tallpine

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Re: Am I reading this wrong?
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2011, 11:21:37 AM »
Does this mean that we can execute him twice...?   =|

 >:D
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CNYCacher

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Re: Am I reading this wrong?
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2011, 12:24:28 PM »
This is like the helicopter crash in Phoenix a couple years back, where the chopper pilots for the nooz crashed into each other while trying to film a high speed chase... then charging the driver on the ground with the murder of the nooz chopper pilots.  Flagrant disrespect of the application of charges, to sate some sort of bastardized communal bloodlust.

About 10 years ago a local man was beaten half to death by some teens in the process of robbing his store.  They were charged with whatever assault or something.  Six months later the victim winds up dying of a heart attack, and the DA ups the charges to murder!  A doctor testified that the stress of the assault could have contributed to the heart attack and the based on that testimony the attackers were convicted of murder.

Scumbags, no doubt, but I think they got shafted.
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AJ Dual

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Re: Am I reading this wrong?
« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2011, 12:30:19 PM »
Does this mean that we can execute him twice...?   =|

 >:D

Ever read "The Worthing Saga"?

There's some folks there who try it more than twice.
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HankB

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Re: Am I reading this wrong?
« Reply #8 on: December 20, 2011, 10:09:00 AM »
. . . This is like the helicopter crash in Phoenix a couple years back, where the chopper pilots for the nooz crashed into each other while trying to film a high speed chase... then charging the driver on the ground with the murder of the nooz chopper pilots . . .
Some years back there was another even more blatant case of misapplication of charges - a fugitive was being chased by police, and a cop en-route to join the search crashed his car, with fatal results. The fugitive was eventually caught, and charged with the murder of the crashed LEO . . . who was some 40 miles away at the time.

If someone is killed during a robbery, burglary, or other crime, I agree with charging all the perps who are directly and immediately involved in the crime, not just the triggerman/knife man/whatever. (If you're robbing a bank, you DON'T get to skate on murder because your buddy got trigger happy and killed a teller.) But some of these charges are downright asinine; were I a juror, they would seriously undermine the credibility of the prosecution in my mind.
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Re: Am I reading this wrong?
« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2011, 03:17:51 PM »
About 10 years ago a local man was beaten half to death by some teens in the process of robbing his store.  They were charged with whatever assault or something.  Six months later the victim winds up dying of a heart attack, and the DA ups the charges to murder!  A doctor testified that the stress of the assault could have contributed to the heart attack and the based on that testimony the attackers were convicted of murder.

Scumbags, no doubt, but I think they got shafted.

6 mos later, yes that could be stress related.  Fear, anxiety, nightmares...etc.  A year or more, no not so much.
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