• lennee@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    misdemeanor? so like, murder is illegal, murdering multiple with a truck is kind of legal

    • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      Meanwhile a couple of parents in North Carolina are facing manslaughter charges after they let their kids walk to the grocery store while they guided them over the phone and one of them got hit and killed by a car.

            • OpenPassageways@lemmy.zip
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              20 days ago

              Yeah I agree it’s fucked up that the parents are in trouble and the driver isn’t. The article says the driver is 76… The father probably was jailed mostly for having the wrong skin color.

              I walked to school more blocks than that at a younger age. The article says the state doesn’t have laws that specify what age the kids must be supervised at to leave their own home. This happened mere blocks from where they lived.

    • Rusty Shackleford@programming.dev
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      1 month ago

      So, if you actually read the article, it says he claimed that the steering wheel locked up on him, but the NTSB stated that he suffered from severe fatigue. Maricopa county prosecutors said there wasn’t enough evidence to press any felonious charges.

      So, at best, this would be a case of manslaughter (which is a felony), but there’s no conclusivity on whether it was with malicious intent or premeditated.

      So no, he’s not a murderer. He negligently fell asleep at the wheel.

      • lennee@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        If u drive while being impaired (by whatever) ur a piece of shit and if u kill anyone doing that (except like suffering a heart attack or something not foreseeable) ur a murderer in my mind.

        • Rusty Shackleford@programming.dev
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          1 month ago

          Fortunately, the law doesn’t operate on what’s in your mind.

          Murder implies premeditation. The prosecutor and judge didn’t see evidence of premeditation.

          • meco03211@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            A lot of people use the word “murder” in a colloquial sense and not a strictly legal one. Further some jurisdictions have degrees of murder where other jurisdictions would use manslaughter. I’m assuming the person you responded to meant the lesser charges.

            • lennee@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              Yeah im not gonna use a legal definition colloquially cuz im not a weirdo. And ur obviously right that even in a colloquial sense there is a difference between premeditated murder and non-premeditated murder. Im not arguing that the guy is jack the ripper.

        • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Failing to maintain a vehicle is an impairment. Also “my steering wheel locked up” is not a reason to not hit the brakes.

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          As someone who is a master of operating under what should be severe impairment I agree, being awake for 48 just leaves me vaguely slow when I talk. Also folks need to know their fucking limits, I refused to drive while I had food poisoning because I couldn’t think and also I didn’t want to shit myself in my car.

    • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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      30 days ago

      There is no law and order in the US. If you want to diddle kids, just operate a Joint commission accredited troubled teen facility. There are literally zero requirements, and you can sue anyone who questions you into poverty!

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      30 days ago

      It doesn’t seem to have been done intentionally, so at best it’s involuntary manslaughter. They think he may have fallen asleep or something.

        • BussyCat@lemmy.world
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          30 days ago

          It meets the exact spirt of involuntary manslaughter. Where his negligence either through faulty vehicle maintenance like him claiming that his steering wheel locked up or by being too tired and driving a multi ton vehicle that caused the deaths of multiple people. And yet they dropped some bullshit ass charges instead

    • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      You actually get rewarded for running over cyclists, one more and it would all have canceled out