Comments on: The Law, It’s a Funny Thing http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/03/31/the-law-its-a-funny-thing/ Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 21 May 2012 19:41:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Tom Vanderbilt http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/03/31/the-law-its-a-funny-thing/#comment-6759 Tom Vanderbilt Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:17:29 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=777#comment-6759 Thanks Nick for the elucidation. I was interested in your comment, "a basic tenet of our criminal justice system is that there has to be intent for an act to be a crime, the thinking being that there is no deterrent value for unintentional acts," and wondered if we need some whole new way to think about this in light of the act of driving, in which few deaths on the road are "intentional" as we think of it (in the sense that someone had in mind to kill someone), but a great majority, rather than being unforeseen "acts of God," nevertheless involve either negligence or violation of a traffic law. Thanks Nick for the elucidation. I was interested in your comment, “a basic tenet of our criminal justice system is that there has to be intent for an act to be a crime, the thinking being that there is no deterrent value for unintentional acts,” and wondered if we need some whole new way to think about this in light of the act of driving, in which few deaths on the road are “intentional” as we think of it (in the sense that someone had in mind to kill someone), but a great majority, rather than being unforeseen “acts of God,” nevertheless involve either negligence or violation of a traffic law.

]]> By: Nick http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/03/31/the-law-its-a-funny-thing/#comment-6758 Nick Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:51:42 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=777#comment-6758 "My first question is: Do the words misdemeanor and manslaughter appear anywhere else together save the curious field of traffic law?" Yes. When unintentional death occurs as the result of an illegal act, the person responsible for the death is guilty of homicide. If the underlying act is a felony the charge is felony-murder. If the underlying act is a misdemeanor the charge is misdemeanor-manslaughter. A basic tenet of our criminal justice system is that there has to be intent for an act to be a crime, the thinking being that there is no deterrent value for unintentional acts. What felony-murder and misdemeanor-manslaughter do is allow for enhanced punishment for the underlying act, due to the severity of the consequences, since the death itself is not a criminal act since it was accidental. Note that many states have "decriminalized" their traffic codes in recent years, making offenses that were misdemeanors civil offenses. This was done to strip defendants of criminal rights so that traffic cases could be heard in traffic courts and basically make it easier to get convictions. A side effect is that there is generally no consequence for killing or injuring someone in a civil infraction, which leads to puzzling outcomes like Robert Novak getting a $50 ticket after running down a pedestrian in a crosswalk. The whole notion of intent is tricky when it comes to driving because so much of driving is done without conscious thought. In drunk driving cases there is also the problem that impairment diminishes the ability to form intent. Legislatures have responded by making drunk driving an intent-less crime. “My first question is: Do the words misdemeanor and manslaughter appear anywhere else together save the curious field of traffic law?”

Yes. When unintentional death occurs as the result of an illegal act, the person responsible for the death is guilty of homicide. If the underlying act is a felony the charge is felony-murder. If the underlying act is a misdemeanor the charge is misdemeanor-manslaughter.

A basic tenet of our criminal justice system is that there has to be intent for an act to be a crime, the thinking being that there is no deterrent value for unintentional acts. What felony-murder and misdemeanor-manslaughter do is allow for enhanced punishment for the underlying act, due to the severity of the consequences, since the death itself is not a criminal act since it was accidental.

Note that many states have “decriminalized” their traffic codes in recent years, making offenses that were misdemeanors civil offenses. This was done to strip defendants of criminal rights so that traffic cases could be heard in traffic courts and basically make it easier to get convictions. A side effect is that there is generally no consequence for killing or injuring someone in a civil infraction, which leads to puzzling outcomes like Robert Novak getting a $50 ticket after running down a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

The whole notion of intent is tricky when it comes to driving because so much of driving is done without conscious thought. In drunk driving cases there is also the problem that impairment diminishes the ability to form intent. Legislatures have responded by making drunk driving an intent-less crime.

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