[extropy-chat] Police Officer Dies After Brawl With Biotech Protesters

[Matthew Gingell]

On Jun 22, 2005, at 3:38 PM, Mike Lorrey wrote:

> On the contrary, resisting arrest and/or assaulting a police  
> officer is
> a felony. Any death that occurs during the commission of that  
> felony is
> to be prosecuted as felony murder. It doesn't matter if he died of a
> heart attack in the scuffle, it was the stress of the assault that
> caused it the demonstrators are murderers. It's on the books.

The felony murder rule is more restrictive than that. The  
Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, CRIMES AND OFFENSES (TITLE 18)  
defines "Perpetration of a felony" for purposes of the felony murder  
rule as "The act of the defendant in engaging in or being an  
accomplice in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, or flight  
after committing, or attempting to commit robbery, rape, or deviate  
sexual intercourse by force or threat of force, arson, burglary or  
kidnapping." So unless the guy was trying to rob, rape, kidnap, or  
burn down the cop for the insurance, the felony murder rule isn't  
relevant.

If you think about it, it's pretty clear you want to narrow the kind  
of acts you want to make applicable for felony murder prosecution.  
Say I'm driving to the post-office to drop off a fraudulent tax  
return and somebody jumps in front of my car: Is there any real  
purpose served by prosecuting this as a second degree homicide rather  
than just as felony mail fraud? Assaulting a police officer or  
violently resisting arrest is a serious matter, if indeed that's what  
happened, but there's really no point is locking up some dope for an  
extra twenty years just because the guy had a bad heart.

Matt