overreaction?

[low_delta]

This was my post yesterday, with some comments:
Man Charged In Pilots' Deaths

I tend to disagree that the deaths were the fault of the person who owned the place that the fire started. I think the deaths were the result of an accident. The planes' wings touched. How can you blame that on the fire? It was a chain of events. How can you single out one of them as a cause of death? Couldn't you just as easily blame the weather conditions?

Now if the fire were arson (which it likely) I could see an argument for charging the man with a crime, but still, murder seems harsh, since I doubt if the guy intended to set the entire mountain range alight. since that was not intended, manslaughter might be more appropriate. But I'm still not so sure about this, since the accident was the fault of the pilots if you want to start placing blame. It hardly seemed unavoidable.

Comments

[i.livejournal.com]

the reason he was charged with murder is that he was operating an illegal meth lab, which was the cause of the fire. any death resulting from a felony is murder.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

That doesn't make any sense to me.

Re:

[i.livejournal.com]

it is the law. if you commit a felony, and someone dies as a result, whether you intnded for them to or not, it is felony murder, which is comparable to 2nd degree, i believe

[blonnie.livejournal.com]

i agree - and what if that was a house fire? ok, the man was doing something illegal there but what if my house caught on fire because i accidentally left a candle burning and a fireman died trying to put it out. that doesn't mean i murdered him, atleast, i wouldn't think so.

[i.livejournal.com]

you wouldn't be charged with murder. likely you wouldn't be charged at all. it all comes down to whether the fire was a direct result of his meth lab

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

You mean like if he was trying to burn his lab to destroy the evidence.

I don't know. I just want people to be charged for the crime they've committed. Two people were killed in an accident (note the word "accident") which happened because they were required to do something because of something this guy started.

I suppose it has an upside. the FAA won't be called in to investigate the crash, because we already know whose fault it was. And the families won't have to deal with losing their loved ones to their own "pilot errors".