tp793 Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 Right now in my english class we are working on our required research essay. Our teacher randomly gives us a topic in which we have to research and then write an essay over and give a quick oral presentation. As soon as I got my topic I thought it would definetely raise some peoples attention in here and get some good thoughts. So heres my question: If someone shoots and intends to kill but is unsuccesfull, should there punishment be lesser than that of someone who shoots intending to kill and succeeds? Your thoughts.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadian_Goose Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 Re: Research Essay Well the criminal code up here would say yes because well both parties had the mens reas (guilty mind), only one succesfully completed the act or actus reus. The consequences of the first scenario would not be as great as the second, hence we have an attempted murder charge. We could also look at it in terms of restorative justice, which would say you would have to repair the harm time, repairation basically. Since there was a greater harm in the second scenario, I believe the level of repairation would thusly need to be higher. If you want to take an ethical stand on it, I'm afraid your on your own. What you may want to do is do some research on your criminal code, restorative justice and then finally research in maybe philosophy or something to back up your ethical stand point.... Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted January 26, 2007 Report Share Posted January 26, 2007 Re: Research Essay Tough to get inside a person's head and analyze intent. Strictly by the law, yes, their punishment should be, and would be less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NS whitetail Posted January 26, 2007 Report Share Posted January 26, 2007 Re: Research Essay it shouldn't be any less, but because of the laws it is that is half the problem what is wrong with the world today --- slack punishment for crimes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted January 26, 2007 Report Share Posted January 26, 2007 Re: Research Essay My personal opinion is if the intent of the person was to kill another human being and for whatever reason their attempt failed, they should not receive any lesser a penalty than the person who attempted and succeeded at taking a life. I think our justice system is way too lenient on attempted murderers. Really sad that some of them are let out to go back and try it again only to succeed at taking a life the next time around. On the flip side of this should a person who quite clearly did not intend to kill someone, but did by say wreck-less or negligent actions receive any more punishment than if they injured a person by the same actions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texan_Til_I_Die Posted January 26, 2007 Report Share Posted January 26, 2007 Re: Research Essay [ QUOTE ] Tough to get inside a person's head and analyze intent. [/ QUOTE ] Correct. No law or punishment should ever be based on "intent". The only thing we can judge another on is their actions. That's what is wrong with these so called hate crimes laws. Those are based strictly on judging someone based on what they were thinking at the time of a crime. And there's just no sound way to get inside someone else's head and determine what their motivations might have been. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that accidentally shooting and killing someone is equivalent to intentionally shooting and killing someone. I'm saying that a deliberate act is a deliberate act, regardless of motivation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadian_Goose Posted January 26, 2007 Report Share Posted January 26, 2007 Re: Research Essay Texan I think if an individual says infront of a couple dozen whittnesses that he/she is planning on killing person x because they are gay, or of y ethnicity, i believe that pretty clear evidence of a hate crime. When you make your intention explicit, they are no longer unknown. This is gunna end up in the political room... Buckee look away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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