Turning The Ballot Box Against Republicans

Democrats nurse fresh memories of bad faith Republican 'bipartisanship'
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/democrats-nurse-fresh-memories-of-bad-faith-republican-bipartisanship-100381253636

The law provides a way to charge people in cases of deaths that they did not directly cause. But there have long been complaints about using it.
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The law does, in fact, provide a way to hold people accountable for deaths they did not directly cause, like that of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer while attempting to enter a restricted area.

But the felony murder rule, as it is called, is a limited provision that has raised a host of legal and moral questions about complicity and fairness.

In its broadest terms the felony murder rule holds a person who commits a crime responsible for any deaths that result.

Michael R. Sherwin, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, has said that felony murder charges are among those under consideration in the sprawling federal investigation, which has resulted in more than 180 arrests.
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Felony murder is a vestige of British common law that many other countries have abolished. It has been used in the United States in ways that have been widely decried, such as charging young people who are not the central participants in a crime.

In other circumstances, like when police officers are accused of killing unjustly, prosecutors have turned to the felony murder rule as a way to avoid having to prove malice aforethought.

It is difficult to tell how often the felony murder rule is used in federal prosecutions because it is lumped in with all other first-degree murder charges, according to the United States Sentencing Commission, which tracks convictions and sentences.
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“Prosecutors don’t like to charge crimes where the law hasn’t clearly established that the charges will stand,” said Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney who now teaches at the University of Alabama School of Law. “So that concern will have to be weighed against the seriousness of the circumstances.”

The classic example of felony murder is an armed robbery in which one robber shoots and kills someone.

Prosecutors can charge both the triggerman and his accomplices with first-degree murder, regardless of premeditation or intent to kill.
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Legal experts say the one most likely to apply in the Capitol riot is burglary, defined as entering a building with the intent to commit an additional crime. Simply having entered the Capitol unlawfully would not be enough, and intent is difficult to prove.

Beyond that, there are other significant hurdles, said Guyora Binder, an expert on felony murder at the University at Buffalo School of Law. One is the question of who qualifies as an accomplice.
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It is unclear whether the federal law allows for felony murder charges in a “third-party” death, such as one caused by a victim or, in Ms. Babbitt’s case, a law enforcement officer. Such cases are not unheard-of in state courts, though they are often among the most controversial uses of the felony murder rule.
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Both Georgia and Minnesota have particularly broad felony murder statutes. Federal law does not include assault as a triggering felony.

So in the death of Officer Brian Sicknick, who was overpowered and beaten by Capitol rioters, and died later at a hospital, those who assaulted him would have to be found to have caused his death during the commission of a different crime — or face a lesser homicide charge like second-degree murder. No one has been charged in the death of Officer Sicknick, who lay in honor in the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday night.

The federal felony murder rule holds that the underlying purpose of the triggering felony has to be distinct from that of homicide — in other words, unintentionally killing someone in the course of a robbery or burglary may count as first-degree murder, but unintentionally killing someone while assaulting them does not. Robbery has the purpose of self-enrichment, while assault and murder share the purpose of causing harm.

“If I intend to commit an assault and the person dies, those are too closely related,” explained Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney who teaches at the University of Michigan Law School. “Prosecutors could inappropriately bootstrap the intent from the assault and convert it into a homicide in every single case.”

In the end, not all who entered the Capitol are going to be treated as equally culpable, Ms. McQuade said. Some may argue that they came in with the sole purpose of expressing their views, while others were clearly reckless and violent.

“I would think the prosecutor would perhaps weigh those two cases differently and would be more likely to file charges in the latter case, even though both might technically qualify,” she said.

Progressives did not use hockey sticks and flag poles to beat up police officers. Lunatic fringe Trumpers did. Hold them accountable.

Progressives did not use hockey sticks and flag poles to beat up police officers.

Lunatic fringe Trumpers did. Hold them accountable.