Key Takeaways
- Killing an already dead person poses complex legal questions.
- Courts worldwide emphasize perpetrator intent over factual impossibility.
- Such acts often result in attempted murder charges, not murder.
- Real cases from France, U.S., and Australia illustrate these legal principles.
Deep Dive
- Hosts Josh and Chuck discuss the peculiar scenario of attempting to kill someone already dead.
- They introduced a story about Sidney Barringer, who attempted suicide but was inadvertently killed by his mother's shotgun.
- This story was later revealed to be fabricated by Don Harper Mills in 1987 to illustrate how new evidence can alter legal rulings.
- The podcast explores a 1986 French case involving Monsieur Wilkins and Monsieur Charot.
- Monsieur Charot allegedly beat and strangled Monsieur Wilkins.
- Monsieur Perderot subsequently attacked the already deceased Wilkins, raising the legal question of whether his actions constituted murder.
- The French high court found Perderot guilty of attempted murder based on intent, despite arguments of 'legal impossibility'.
- The discussion highlights the complexity of charging someone with murder if the victim is already deceased.
- This legal scenario often revolves around the intent of the perpetrator rather than the factual impossibility of killing a corpse.
- Early discussions pose hypotheticals about the seriousness of such an act under real case law.
- A 1975 New York case involved Michael Geller, Joe Bush, and Melvin Dlugash, where Dlugash shot an already downed Geller multiple times.
- Dlugash claimed Geller was already dead, attempting to hinder a murder charge.
- The New York Supreme Court ruled Dlugash's actions as attempted murder, prioritizing his belief that Geller might be alive (intent) over factual impossibility.
- Charging for attempted murder when the victim is deceased occurs with some frequency, including a 2014 incident in Melbourne, Australia.
- Daniel Darrington shot Rocky Spartacus Matt Scassy, who was already wounded and twitching, claiming to end his suffering.
- Darrington was found guilty of attempted murder by a jury, based on his intent to kill Scassy, whom they believed was still alive.