Quote:
Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
Typically, to constitute involuntary manslaughter, (1) the defendant's conduct must involve a high degree of risk of death or serious bodily injury, and (2) the defendant must be aware that his conduct creates this risk. Here, the prosecutors are taking a very loose view of (2) to ask whether a reasonable person would know that leaving the baby in the car could kill or injure it. The proper analysis is whether the defendant knew that what he was doing presented that risk. If he didn't know he was leaving the baby in the car, no crime was committed, just as sure as if someone had placed the baby in the trunk without his knowledge and it remained asleep the entire time.
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replace the crushed school teacher loving father from the original post with the more typical 23 year old crack addict with 3 kids. 1 died, the other 2 in hospital. now does your analysis change? I feel bad for the high school teacher because he's closer to me so its harder to be judgemental, but the crack addict didn't know there was the risk (unless you mean should have known). the other wierd thread to this stuff is the kind of parent who wants the kid dead, you know the lady in SC who drove into the lake, I know its paranoid, but might she not try leaving a kid in a car on a real hot day? this kind of thing is why I'm glad not to be involved in criminal law.
