Boredalt wrote:
I think it is important to distinguish between a "kid" being a child, and a college student who is an adult knowingly committing a crime. It is a felony in many places, but since I live in Texas, I checked here. At least in Texas, the classification of this crime depends on where the alarm is pulled. It is a Class A misdemeanor (up to 1 year) in most cases, but is a felony in public schools, public transportation, or public utilities. Things are less clear if a responder dies, but I think you're probably right about that, too. Involuntary manslaughter of this type would be about 2 years, I think. I just recited what I was told during a week of bomb threats way back when I was in high school and I swear I read, today, that life is the maximum penalty allowable in Canada if this scenario happened, but I sure can't find it now dammit!
So I'm full of shit. Pulling a fire alarm is no biggie. /sigh A few months to two years?... psssh....that's nothing for something so funny! What could possibly go wrong?
The responder dying only matters if the act of pulling the fire alarm is itself a felony. If it is, felony-murder is capable of attaching and we can proceed to the other reasons the charges will fail. If pulling the alarm is a misdemeanor, the kid is off scot-free no matter how many people it kills, unless he can independently also be found to be the actual cause of those deaths (odds: zero). But back to the situation in which pulling the alarm is a felony. If it is, the felony-murder rule applies if someone dies during the attempt and perpetration of the felony. As soon as the perpetrator reaches a place of safety, the crime is considered completed. The trick would be defining "place of safety" as well as finding out at exactly what time such a place was reached, and at what time the responder died. If they don't overlap, he's off the hook. And
even if they overlap, a causal connection has to exist. The kid didn't directly kill anyone, nor did he cause a death to occur during the perpetration of a felony.
Even if a civil case for wrongful death were filed, which has a lower burden of proof, the alarm-puller would get off. Proximate cause isn't satisfied. Plus, cops and firemen aren't allowed to sue in civil court for harm that befalls them during the normal course of their work.
People are responsible only for the
reasonable consequences of their actions. That's how our legal system works.
If destruction exists, we must destroy everything.
Shuruppak Yuratuhl Slaad Shrpk Breizh
