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Marathon Killers Apprehended: the Aftermath

Re: Marathon Killers Apprehended: the Aftermath

bigblue_dl said:
Ok, that would make sense then. If that is enough to convict, which I don't know enough about law to know if it is or not, then I would say he should get a murder charge for that one as well.
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Depends on the situation. Depends on the State. Depends on the crime. I wouldn't know for that case either, but just saying it could be a situation where they don't need to know who actually pulled the trigger.
 
Russell Jaslow said:
Is murder in a federal crime punishable by death? Mass murder? Killing a police officer?

I really don't know, but I ask wondering if this WMD charge is only there for the sake of trying to get a death penalty conviction. If so, then I can understand. If not, then I wonder if that charge is there to try and get a better definition of a WMD with a precedent setting case.
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Yes, murder is a federal crime. But it only applies if the feds can obtain jurisdiction. there is no general police power giving the feds the ability to get involved in any given random crime.

Given the entire series of crimes at issue here, though, I doubt that would be an issue, and they could tack on felony murder or conspiracy charges to get the death penalty on the table.
 
Re: Marathon Killers Apprehended: the Aftermath

unofan said:
Yes, murder is a federal crime. But it only applies if the feds can obtain jurisdiction. there is no general police power giving the feds the ability to get involved in any given random crime.

Given the entire series of crimes at issue here, though, I doubt that would be an issue, and they could tack on felony murder or conspiracy charges to get the death penalty on the table.
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That's not exactly what I was asking, though I appreciate the information you provided.

My question was if a murder occurred during a federal crime (i.e., a kidnapping), is that murder charge when tried in federal court capable of receiving a death penalty, without throwing in any WMD designation.
 
Re: Marathon Killers Apprehended: the Aftermath

dxmnkd316 said:
Rereading the criminal complaint against him, the Feds are asserting jurisdiction because this bombing disrupted interstate commerce.
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So any murder that occurs in a public setting - near a mall or a national chain restaurant - is now subject to potential federal prosecution. Great. :rolleyes:
 
Re: Marathon Killers Apprehended: the Aftermath

dxmnkd316 said:
Agreed. Because if we're only talking about something that has the capacity to kill say "dozens" of people, then would a semiautomatic rifle with a couple of 30-round magazines count? I sure as hell don't think so.
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/I'm that guy
 
Russell Jaslow said:
That's not exactly what I was asking, though I appreciate the information you provided.

My question was if a murder occurred during a federal crime (i.e., a kidnapping), is that murder charge when tried in federal court capable of receiving a death penalty, without throwing in any WMD designation.
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Yes, presuming it qualifies for 1st degree murder.

18 U.S.C. 1111
 
Re: Marathon Killers Apprehended: the Aftermath

St. Clown said:
So any murder that occurs in a public setting - near a mall or a national chain restaurant - is now subject to potential federal prosecution. Great. :rolleyes:
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I think that's always been there.

My have times changed. For those of you like me who are old enough to remember the 60's and 70's, setting off bombs used to be de rigueur for those who had a message to convey. Sometimes the state would prosecute, sometimes the feds. More often than not is seemed to the untrained eye that is was based more upon the notoriety of the act, or size of the explosion, than anything else.

As I recall, some kid set a couple of bombs in a Daytons department store in St. Paul in the 70's. I don' think he killed anyone, but that was probably due more to fortuity and incompetence than anything else. I think he was prosecuted locally. I also seem to recall seeing a sign or plaque on the Wisconsin campus involving a bombing of a building there. But those guys were prosecuted by the feds. They just weren't executed.

That's what bothers me a little. So the feds want to prosecute him. They probably have the right to do so, since as others have noted "interstate commerce" is pretty broad. But if the sole reason is to execute, that seems kind of abusive.
 
Re: Marathon Killers Apprehended: the Aftermath

Russell Jaslow said:
Seriously? Heck, if I can pulled over for speeding causing a rubber necking traffic jam, is that disrupting interstate commerce because goods are getting to the stores later?

Geez. The Feds can justify any sort of crime with that logic. :confused:
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Yeah, I'm convinced that every time I hear the words "interstate commerce" my blood pressure permanently goes up by a point.
 
Re: Marathon Killers Apprehended: the Aftermath

joecct said:
Anyone remember the FALN??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuerzas_Armadas_de_Liberación_Nacional_Puertorriqueña
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I had forgotten about them, 'till Bill Clinton pardoned them. "They had suffered enough."

In '54, a gang of 'em began shooting from the gallery of the House, wounding 5 congressmen. Jimmy Carter pardoned them.

And a couple of 'em were killed in an assassination attempt on President Truman while he was living in Blair House during WH renovation. A WH police officer was killed. But, while mortally wounded, he put one in the head of one assassin, putting his lights out.
 
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Re: Marathon Killers Apprehended: the Aftermath

FreshFish said:
Yup, you could even kill a few police officers, then spend 20 years in jail, and after you are released, get a position on the faculty at Columbia University!
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FWIW, you're mixing the actions of several different people altogether there.

Plus, isn't she proof that people can be successfully reformed? Of course, the answer and the discussion of that topic are really best addressed in a different thread.
 
Re: Marathon Killers Apprehended: the Aftermath

joecct said:
I like it that her kid was adopted by Bill Ayers.
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Recall that several Weather Underground types blew themselves to h*ll when their Greenwich Village bomb factory went up. Man, it took me a long time to recover from that one. Also, similarly motivated punks exploded a bomb at the University of Wisconsin that took the life of a graduate student who was working late at night.

Before he became a presidential mentor and pal, Ayers exploded several bombs and has written his only regret is "not doing more."
 
Re: Marathon Killers Apprehended: the Aftermath

IMO, calling one of these shrapnel devices a WMD is stretching that definition way too far. Still intensely disgusting but it isn't a NBC weapon.
 
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