Hypothetical questions

[ShadowOfMyself]

I was thinking about some hypothetical murder situations, which I think will split most people, and I would have no idea how to proceed

Scenario 1 - You are serving drinks at a party, after a while those who were drinking start to die - someone obviously poisoned the drinks, but you have no idea who it was

Question - Are you a murderer? Even if you found out who poisoned the drinks, it was you who distributed them, unaware of it of course, but no one would have died if it werent for you

Scenario 2 - Someone hires you to kill some guy, and after doing the job, you find out the guy you killed was his twin and not the one you wanted

Question - Are you a murderer? Its true that you had the intention of killing someone, but you had no intention of killing his twin... Are you to be blamed?

Scenario 3 - You find yourself in a room with someone dear, and a guy is pointing a gun at them, while telling you he will shoot them unless you kill another innocent person in the same room... You know he is serious and you go for it

Question - Are you a murderer? Would you say you were framed by the other guy? After all, he never got to pull to trigger, but he WOULD if you didnt kill the innocent person... Basically you traded the life of someone random for the life of someone dear, are you really at fault here?

Scenario 4 - You plan on killing a guy, but you have terrible aim/are very far away, and hit his arm instead of his head, no serious damage was done and he recovers after a while

Question - Are you a murderer? After all, you did have the intention of killing him, but it just didnt happen... Do you think you would get the same sentence whether you hit or missed the shot?


Basically this makes us wonder, is the intention really what counts? Or is the result more important? Who is the murderer - the guy who tries to kill and fails, or the guy who kills by mistake?

 

[FoBoT]

everyone is guilty

#4 is covered by the law, that is attempted murder

 

[Soccerman06]

What are you planning?

 

[Kelemvor]

#1) No. You didn't kill anyone, the drinks killed them and more importantly the one who poisoned the drinks did. Just because you happened to give someoen the drink is no different than them picking it up off a counter on their own.

#2) You killed someone, you're guilty of murder.

#3) You killed someone, you're guilty of murder.

#4) Murder means you killed someone. #4 they didn't die so you can't get arrested for Murder because no one is dead. Attempted murder is different than Murder and will usually get a less harsh sentence depending on the situation and how good the lawyer is.

 

[Roguestar]

What if there were no hypothetical situations?

 

[Roguestar]

For what it's worth, I think the whole premise of this poll is retarded. If you kill someone deliberately, you're a murderer. It is both in the intent of harm and the final result.

First situation: no, you didn't poison the drinks. You were being used. That's like imprisoning Smith and Wesson for making guns.

In the ridiculous twin situation when you saw the man you thought you were to kill, your intention was to kill that man. As you deliver the killing blow it doesn't matter what his name is; you are deliberately killing him. You made a mistake but you didn't kill that man "by accident".

Third: Yes, retarded question. You had a choice and you decided to deliberately kill the innocent person.

Fourth: Clearly, this is attempted murder. I mean, wow what a stupid question.