Charges Of Homicide Research Articles

Femina sacra: Gendered memory and political violence

Synopsis This article explores a specific form of state sanctioned violence enacted towards survivors of Transnistria, Ukraine, using testimonies of women survivors of Transnistria. The article theorises the woman survivor of genocide as femina sacra — the equivalent of Agamben's [Agamben, Giorgio (1995) Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford, Ca: Stanford University Press.] homo sacer, she who can be killed without charge of homicide but who cannot be sacrificed, and who is always at the mercy of sovereign power. The article then examines the politics of memory in relation to political violence and the concept of postmemory, as developed by Marianne Hirsch [Hirsch, Marianne (1997) Family Frames: Photography, Narrative and Postmemory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.], denoting a ‘vicarious past’ or ‘received history’, and the link between feminism and ‘cultural memory’. It concludes by teasing out a series of interrelated questions about the role gender plays in the interaction of genocide, gender and memory.

Melissa Rowland and the Rights of Pregnant Women

On March 11, 2004, the State of Utah charged Melissa Rowland with the murder of her stillborn fetus, claiming that the death resulted from her rejection of the advice of her physicians to have a cesarean delivery. Although Ms. Rowland avoided the homicide charge by pleading guilty to lesser child endangerment charges, the approach taken by the State raises important and troubling issues regarding the autonomy rights of pregnant women, as well as their right to speak on behalf their unborn children. We use this case to review relevant ethical principals and legal precedents. We conclude that if Ms. Rowland is to be judged legally culpable for the death of her fetus, then the courts must first create a new and significant exception to the doctrine of informed consent and the common law and constitutional principles upon which it is based. Such a precedent could introduce a substantial disparity between the rights of pregnant women and those of all other persons. We would argue that a better means of assuring the health interests of the pregnant woman and the fetus in similar circumstances is through advocacy by obstetricians for pregnant women's fully realized rights, including the right to informed consent.

The pinto legacy: The community as an indirect victim of corporate deviance

In 1978, in Elkhart County Indiana, three teenage girls died following an “accident” in which their Ford Pinto was struck from behind and burst into flames. Two years later, in what has been described as a landmark case (Maakestad, 1987; Clinard, 1990; Frank and Lynch, 1992; Hills, 1987), a trial began in which the Ford Motor Company, as a result of this incident, found itself facing three charges of reckless homicide (State of Indiana v. Ford Motor Company, hereafter referred to as the Pinto Case). While this was not the first time an automobile manufacturer was faced with a potentially lethal faulty design (the Chevrolet Covair among others), it was the first case to result in a criminal homicide charge. The Pinto case has received considerable attention in the criminological and legal literature, ranging from journal articles (Clark, 1979; Swigert and Farrell, 1980–81; Wheeler, 1981), to discussions in textbooks (Albanese, 1995; Green, 1997), to books focusing on the case in varying degrees (Birsch and Fielder, 1994; Cullen et al., 1987; Strobel, 1980; Welty, 1982).

The German Border Guard Cases and International Human Rights

After the reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990 the German courts were required to deal with charges of homicide against GDR border guards who had killed fugitives trying to escape over the Berlin Wall or across the border separating East from West Germany. According to the Unification Treaty, the law relevant to crimes committed on GDR territory prior to the date of unification was the criminal law of the GDR, unless the law of the Federal Republic of Germany was more favourable to the defendant Thus, defendants invoked GDR law to establish that their actions had been lawful and could not be held to be criminal. This article demonstrates how international human rights were brought into play by the courts in arguing that the laws of the GDR had to yield to a higher law. It also refers to the reasoning of the Federal Constitutional Court when it addressed the question of ex post facto laws. There the Court's arguments remained exclusively within the sphere of German constitutional law. It is contended that the Court's reasoning would have been more convincing had it also taken into account in this instance the relevant provisions of international human rights instruments.

Parental Discretion in Refusal of Treatment for Newborns: A Real but Limited Right

Manslaughter charges were brought in Lansing, Michigan against Gregory Messenger, a local dermatologist, for removing his extremely premature infant son from a ventilator in a neonatal intensive care unit. The issue in the case was the degree of intervention required for the newborn for whom the parents had been counseled that there was a 50% to 70% mortality and that if the child did survive, there was a 20% to 40% chance of severe intraventricular hemorrhage and a likelihood of substantial respiratory problems. In light of those grim data, the parents requested that no aggressive measures be undertaken. The neonatologist instructed her physician's assistant to ventilate if the child was "vigorous." The homicide charge was based on Gregory Messenger's failure to provide proper medical treatment for his infant son.

Defences for Battered Women Who Kill

Recent articles on legal theory suggest that the concepts 'standpoint'1 and 'perspective'2 may be useful in probing certain issues. The idea is to recognize a pluralism of views, values, interests, and experiences which affect what we know about law. This involves questioning the Archimedian position, that of the detached neutral observer who sits on Olympus and decides what is right or fair in judgement, law-making or indeed academic writing. Instead an experiential approach to law is put forward. For example, it is argued that the perspectives and experiences of many groups have been ignored in the past, and that these must be considered in law making and application. Changes in many aspects of law, including legislation, case-law, practice, and procedure, might follow. This paper represents an effort to apply the experiential approach to an area of law where it seems particularly appropriate: the case of the victim of aggression who kills the assailant. If we are 'to shape the definitions to make law fit women's experience',3 the problem of the battered woman who kills provides a site of investigation. For it is often alleged that the current form of law ignores women's experiences and that the defences of self-defence and provocation which justify or partially excuse homicide are limited to male definitions and behavioural practices. What is being suggested is that long experience of being a victim of violence may lead a woman to kill, only to find that the law condemns her.4 There is a burgeoning literature on this topic in North American law journals,5 but discussion in Britain is just beginning.6 This paper focuses not only on the charge of lack of even-handedness which has been levelled against law, but also on the methodological problems involved in incorporating pluralism of experiences in law-making. Part I deals with the background material. Part II examines the traditional defences to charges of homicide. Part III reviews the North American literature, and in particular, the defence of 'battered woman syndrome' which has been used to present experiential material to juries. Part IV concludes with an examination of the problems involved in re-casting the law.

Contested Terrain: The Nazi Analogy in Bioethics

The Analogy in Bioethnics Commentary by Nat Hentoff The Nazi Analogy in Bioethics To say that certain contemporary bioethicists and members of the laity sometimes approach the solving of life-or-death problems as the Nazis did in no way means they are Nazis. It is possible, however, with the very best of intentions, to think and plan in a way that would bring about results that were also the goals of the Nazis--from different motivations. For instance, beginning in 1933, the Germans began killing defectives of various kinds, in part because they were unproductive (useless eaters) and therefore were costly to the society. The pragmatic, cost-benefit dimension to the murders was illustrated in the widely used high school mathematics text cited by Dr. Leo Alexander. The text, Mathematics in the Service of National Political Education, included such problems, Alexander noted, as many new housing units could be built and how many marriage-allowance loans could be given to newly wedded couples for the amount of money it cost the state to care for the 'crippled, the criminal and insane,' (Medical Science Under Dictatorship, New England Journal of Medicine, July 14, 1949). Daniel Callahan readily admits that he wrote Setting Limits because of the acute and inexorably increasing problem of medical care costs, particularly with regard to the elderly. He does not advocate euthanasia for people past a certain age; but by having the state--through Medicare--refuse to pay for certain expensive life-extending procedures such as coronary bypass operations once that age has been reached, the result of his design is to shorten lives. For all that he talks about alleviating their pain and suffering and getting the society to provide them with decent home care or nursing home care, he is saying that the lives of the elderly are worth less--in terms of prolonging them--than other lives. This is a variation, as I see it, of the Nazis' lebensunwertes Leben, unworthy of In this case, life unworthy of being extended, according to cost-benefit analysis, by procedures he believes ought to be more available to others in the society. When Callahan is asked whether there is not a certain in sorting out people by age as to whether they can get certain treatment--not counting the elderly who can afford whatever they want and do not depend on the government to stay alive--he admits there is an unfair economic bias to his plan. But, he adds, the resulting injustice would not be for a very long time. A very long time by whose measure? The comment, and cost-benefit designs for dying by others, recall something said by Milton Himmelfarb: [I]s there not an argument that could be made...about a general coarsening of regard for life? There exists ... a certain kind of accountant's mentality or an engineer's mentality in dealing with the questions of life.... While it has nothing to do necessarily with the specifics of yet the Nazis too did not have the bias of awe toward life and dealt with life (certain kinds of life at any rate) as if they were dealing with mere things (Biomedical Ethics and the Shadow of Nazism, Hastings Center Report, August 1976, Special Supplement). In the Spring 1988 Concern for Dying newsletter, Dr. Ronald Cranford (Neurology Department, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis) is quoted as proposing that in the future, some instances of artificially shortening life--a most gentle euphemism--be exempted from charges of homicide. If someone, he adds, were in an irreversible persistent vegetative state, there is no personhood. Without personhood, there could be no act of murder. Aside from whether physicians are invariably correct in their diagnoses of irreversibility, Cranford has gotten to the basic question in the similarities, if any, between some current physicians and ethicists and the Nazi doctors. …

Irreversible coma and withdrawal of life support: is it murder if the IV line is disconnected?

Towers, a consultant to the defense, presents an account of a homicide charge being processed against two Los Angeles physicians. At the family's request for withdrawal of life support systems, the doctors removed nasogastric and intravenous lines from a patient whose cardiac arrest after surgery resulted in severe brain damage. At the autopsy, dehydration was listed as a contributory cause of death. Towers discusses the case as it involves local guidelines for discontinuing treatment, California law, and media coverage.

Passive euthanasia of defective newborn infants: Legal considerations

The recent increase in reporting of passive euthanasia of defective newborn infants has not been accompanied by extensive analysis of the legality of the practice or the appropriateness of current law. There appears to be criminal liability on several grounds for parents, physicians, nurses, and administrators. Such liability may include charges of homicide by omission, child neglect, and failure to report child neglect. Increasing public exposure of the practice increases the probability that such prosecutions may be brought. Individuals involved in such decisions should be aware of their possible legal liability. If existing legal policy is inappropriate, it sould be changed through open discussion and not subverted through private action. Two alternative policies are described: establishment of criteria for the class of infants who can be allowed to die or a better process of decision making. We conclude that a committment to process would be preferable.

On the Fringes of Smoke Rings

To accuse smoking of causing leukocytosis and erythrocytosis is like adding petty larceny to a charge of homicide. It is an anticlimax. Still, although not as ominous as lung cancer or myocardial ischemia, the increased number of blood cells may generate diagnostic problems. Corre et al1and Friedman et al2noted that smoking can cause leukocytosis. Fisch and Freedman (p 500) corroborate this observation. Having analyzed data from 14,961 healthy women to determine the relative importance of factors that raise the white blood cell count, these investigators find that smoking ranks highest. Contributory, but less important, factors are obesity and the use of oral contraceptives. The leukocyte count in their series was higher than 10,000/cu mm in 44% of women who were fat, who smoked, and who took oral contraceptives. By contrast, this high figure was reached only in 2% of control subjects. Thus, smoking enters the arena

Criminal Law. Double Jeopardy. Acquittal of Reckless Driving Does Not Bar Trial on Vehicular Homicide Charge. Martinis v. Supreme Court, 15 N. Y.2d 240, 206 N. E.2d 165, 258 N. Y. S.2d 65 (1965)

Criminal Law. Double Jeopardy. Acquittal of Reckless Driving Does Not Bar Trial on Vehicular Homicide Charge. Martinis v. Supreme Court, 15 N. Y.2d 240, 206 N. E.2d 165, 258 N. Y. S.2d 65 (1965)

Criminal Law. Double Jeopardy. Effect of Acquittal on Charge of Homicide of One of Two Persons Shot in Consequence of a Single Volition in Prosecution for Homicide of the Other

Criminal Law. Double Jeopardy. Effect of Acquittal on Charge of Homicide of One of Two Persons Shot in Consequence of a Single Volition in Prosecution for Homicide of the Other

ANEURYSMAL DILATATION OF PULMONARY ARTERY WITH PATENT DUCTUS ARTERIOSUS

P. S., a woman, aged 29, married, housewife, born in this country, had an altercation with her sister-in-law on the night of Oct. 19, 1923, during which she fell to the floor, striking her head. She died immediately, and the sister-in-law was arrested on the charge of homicide, pending investigation. I was notified about an hour and a half after the death of the woman. Investigation revealed that she had always been fairly well, except for shortness of breath, occasional dizzy spells and attacks of fainting. She had worked hard in the household, but had been under the care of a physician for what was diagnosed as chronic cardiovascular disease. The family history and the past history were otherwise negative. There was no history of syphilis. The deceased had never had any children. The sister-in-law stated that there had been no form of violence during the altercation, the deceased having