Text 3240, 73 rader
Skriven 2005-12-16 06:45:37 av George Pope (1:153/715.1275)
Ärende: Quincy Revisited
========================
At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS President Dr
on Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal complications of a bizarr
 death.

Here is the story.....

On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus  and conc
uded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr Opus  had jumped from th
 top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to the
effect indicating his despondency.

As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast pas
ing through a window, which killed him instantly.

Neither the  shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been inst
lled just below the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and tha
 Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had pl
nned. Ordinarily,"

Dr Mills continued,  "A person who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately  S
cceeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended,is still define
 as committing suicide."
That Mr Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have
een successful because of the safety net,caused the medical examiner to feel th
t  he had a homicide on his hands.

In the room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied
y an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threaten
ng her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he
ompletely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Mr O
us. When one intends to kill subject "A" but kills subject "B" in the attempt,
ne is guilty of the murder of subject "B."

When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adama
t and both said that they thought the shotgun was unloaded.The old man said it
as a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had
no intention to murder her.
Therefore the killing of Mr Opus appeared to be an accident; that is, if the gu
 had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son l
ading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident. It transpired th
t the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the
propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with
he expectation that his  father would shoot his mother.

Since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the murder even
though he didn't actually pull the trigger. The case now becomes one of murder
n the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.

Now comes the exquisite twist.

Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had b
come increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mo
her's murder. This led him to jump off the ten story building on March 23rd,onl
 to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The so
 had actually murdered himself, so the medical examiner closed the case as a su
cide.



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