Say you run from the police on the highway, should your punishment be worse if two news helicopters happen to crash?
If I drive drunk and crash, should the punishment be worse if I kill someone? Should my punishment be less if I get lucky and no one happens to die?
Discuss
" Say you run from the police on the highway, should your punishment be worse if two news helicopters happen to crash? "
No.
“If I drive drunk and crash, should the punishment be worse if I kill someone?”
Yes.
Say you run from the police on the highway, should your punishment be worse if two news helicopters happen to crash?
no. Nobody forced the news helicopters to follow you and in mho it is piolet error.
If I drive drunk and crash, should the punishment be worse if I kill someone?
absolutely. that is a foreseeable consequence of your negligent actions.
It was a foreseeable consequence for the guy who got lucky and didn’t kill anyone as well though.
Please note I am not trying to be an ass about this just looking for clarification to make sure we are on the same page. The question is should the out come affect the punishment? So assuming you have a range of punishment you can assign for drunk driving from something like a a minimum of $1500 fine and 48 hours in county at the low end to a greater amount of money fined and a greater amount of time in jail. Does the person who drives drunk and get caught but not kill someone get the lower end of the spectrum while the person who gets behind the wheel drunk and kills some get the higher end of the spectrum? Is that specifically what your asking? Because the person who killed someone WILL get more fines/jail time because additional crimes were committed i.e. drunk driving and vehicular homicide. Obviously the homicide charge will carry a stiffer penalty than the DD charge that the first guy who didnt commit the additional crime.
If you drive drunk and do not kill someone, you haven’t committed a homicide, which would be punishable in addition to the drunk driving. Although vehicular homcide is a foreseeable consequence of driving drunk, it has to actually occur in rder for you to be punished accordingly.
To answer the question you’re getting at (not the best examples, but I know where you’re headed), yes, in some cases I think it should. Attempted murder should carry the same punishment as murder. Drunk driving resulting in injury to others should carry a punishment similar to vehicular homicide/felony DUI regardless of the person’s survival or extent of injury.
Violent crimes or charges involving flagrant disregard for life are the two areas where I believe the outcome matters less, as the difference between the survival or death of the victims is mostly a matter of chance.
Interesting question, on a forum in a country that “punishes” people with better aim more than those with poor aim.
No, I don’t think that someone running from the police should be held accountable for two news helos running into each other…I fail to see how he had anything to do with that accident. That is pilot error, pure and simple.
Spot
There is some reason to punishing someone for the ‘success’ of their crime. People who drive drunk for instance, and don’t kill people, may be less of a danger than those who do tend to actually crash.
Same for those with better aim. They ARE more dangerous to society than those with bad aim, even if both are taking the same number of shots =)