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There are worse things than being robbed at gunpoint
"Polk County Man Sets Two Women On Fire". The two women he splashed with gasoline during the robbery took burns over 90% of their bodies.
Thanks to reader Fred Rawlings for the story....
Update: whether and why the law should punish attempt less seriously than a completed crime has LONG been debated. The traditional view was that justice requires retribution for crime, and an attempt did less harm than a completely offense. Then that seemed a little to ... judgmental? ... and the theory arose that the object was incapacitation, lock the guy up or snuff him and he can't do it again, or alternately, deterrence. Under either of those approaches it's hard to explain punishing attempt less strictly -- a perp who tries to kill is just as a much of a risk as one who succeeds, and deterrence of attempts is just as valuable as deterrence of the crime. Of course, here the guy is gonna get the max for, oh, three counts of agg. assault while armed, three of attempted murder, one of burglary (entering a structure with intent to commit theft, and anything else they can fit in. (In AZ, if the perp says "stand over there," they add in kidnapping). In some states, but not AZ, the judge can "stack" sentences at will, so the guy might wind up with about four twenty year sentences, consecutive.
Comments
Glad Florida has the death penalty and I hope he gets it if one of his victims dies. I wish he could get it even if they don't die.
Posted by: Flash Gordon at December 14, 2007 03:50 PM
Flash, as I wrote here, he deserves to die regardless if his victims survive or not.
David, maybe you can explain to me why attempted murder is any different than murder. The goblin's intent to kill you makes him unworthy of remaining in society. Just because he missed the artery or someone put his victim out before they could burn to death doesn't change anything. The attacker is still a monster.
I can understand someone claiming they only shot to wound (although I believe that during a commission of a crime, any attack is attempted murder). But you can't claim that you accidentally burned someone half to death. Few people carry around gasoline and matches.
Seriously, why does the victim have to die to make the charge of murder stick?
Posted by: Robb Allen at December 14, 2007 04:27 PM
Thanks David. It would seem I'm not off kilter with my thoughts on this.
Posted by: Robb Allen at December 15, 2007 07:18 AM
Robb, some jurisdictions by statute make the punishment for attempt the same as the punishment for the completed crime but I don't think any state has the death penalty for attempted murder. Many states still do as at common law and specify punishment for attempt to be one notch below that for the underlying crime.
It gets worse, attempted murder is usually harder to prove than murder because the mental state for attempt is generally a specific intent to commit the crime whereas murder was a malice crime (somewhere between specific and general intent, e.g., a malignant heart) at common law. First degree murder, which did not exist at common law, is a specific intent crime as well so for death penalty purposes it doesn't matter.
Modern statutes usually only require a showing of a substantial step toward completion of the underlying crime which can be proved by circumstantial evidence.
I hope someday there will be statutes that will adopt the same standard for attempted murder as for 1st degree murder itself to qualify for the death penalty. Usually that is something called "aggravating circumstances" or something similar. In this case, even if the victims survive there will be plenty of aggravating circumstances justifying the death penalty, maybe not yet in the letter of the law but definitely in the spirit.
Posted by: Flash Gordon at December 15, 2007 09:48 AM