Comments on: Jury: distant fugitive to blame for trooper’s death

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:56:18 +0000

“As he drove with his lights and siren on, he came over a hill near Pacific, and slammed into a tractor trailer.”

Not able to stop within the distance he could see to be clear – fails his basic driving test.

By: Bumper

Bumper — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 22:25:47 +0000

“Isn’t this the same as if you rob a bank and one of the tellers has a fatal heart attack?”

In case of a bank teller the robber would have been close proximity to the teller. In this case the alleged miscreant was many miles away at the time of the accident.

Seldom reported is that the deceased officer is alleged to have had an adult beverage just prior to heading for work and that he was also “late” for work.

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 18:11:51 +0000

If the fire was arson and set by the homeowner then yes they would charge him. Isn’t this the same as if you rob a bank and one of the tellers has a fatal heart attack?

By: ben tillman

ben tillman — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:21:11 +0000

Was this a “felony-murder” prosecution?

By: Dave_D

Dave_D — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:32:44 +0000

Good thing I wasn’t on the jury. Personally I would say that the trooper’s own negligence was responsible for his death. I guess that if the trooper had hit a smaller vehicle and killed someone or run down a pedestrian that would have the the suspect’s fault as well?

By: KDP

KDP — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 10:30:45 +0000

These people probably also believe that Uri Geller is for real.

By: Deoxy

Deoxy — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 10:02:56 +0000

Conviction doesn’t bother me overly much… I’m used to juries finding SOMETHING to blame on “bad” people, and wanting SOMEONE to blame for bad things, so this seems fairly easy to do, given a typical (meaning, “easy to emotionally manipulate”) jury.

What bothers me is that he was charged in the first place. Prosecutors should know better.

What next? Charging a homeowner who has a fire because a firefighter died in a collision on the way to put out the fire? You can see how this presents and endless list of potential “crimes”.