[ExI] Murder (was: Re: bishop warns of no-go areas)

[ben]

"Gary Miller" <aiguy at comcast.net> wrote:

 > Since the US has started to seriously crack down on drunk drivers in 
the 1990's a much greater number of DUIs resulting in fatalities
 > are  prosecuted as, and therefore reported as murders, as they should 
be.

Should they?
Only if you're going to redefine 'murder'.

If you'd asked me before i read this, i'd have defined murder as 
deliberately killing someone, and my dictionary supports this definition 
(adding that it is an 'unlawful' killing).

Deaths caused by drunken driving are clearly not premeditated (usually). 
I'd think that the term 'manslaughter' was more appropriate, and 
wouldn't muddy the figures (somebody taking a gun and shooting a person 
in the head is clearly a different thing to getting drunk and 
accidentally causing a fatal accident, and should be recorded as such). 
I'm not saying that the result is any less serious for the victim. 
Mainly, i'm objecting to the loss of information in redefining the word 
'murder' like this.

It seems to me that the classification of drunk-driving-caused deaths as 
'murder' is more of a marketing exercise than anything sensible, with 
the thinking that if you redefine it, and the penalty therefore 
automatically becomes harsher, there will be more of a deterrent. This 
might be easier to achieve than doing the sensible thing, and making the 
penalty harsher without redefining drunk-driving-caused death into an 
inappropriate category.

ben zed