sharky
02-22-2005, 01:39 PM
Subject: DUMB ENOUGH TO BE TRUE
Not even Law and Order would attempt to capture this mess. This is an
unbelievable twist of fate!!! At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for
Forensic Science, AAFS President Dr. Don Harper Mills
astounded his audience with the legal complications of a bizarre death.
Here is the story:
On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald
Opus, and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head.
Mr.Opus had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to
commit suicide. He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency.
As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun
blast passing through a window, which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net
had been installed just below the eighth floor level to protect
some building workers, and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to
complete his suicide the way he had planned.
"Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "Someone who sets out to commit
suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be
what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide."
That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably
would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the
medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.
The room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast emanated,
was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing
vigorously, and he was threatening her with a shotgun!
The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger, he completely
missed his wife, and the pellets went through the window, striking Mr.
Opus.
When one intends to kill subject "A" but kills subject "B" in the
attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject "B." When confronted
with the murder charge, the old man and his wife were both adamant, and
both said that they thought the shotgun was not loaded. The old man said
it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded
shotgun. He had no intention to murder her.
Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is,
assuming the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old
couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal
accident.
It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial
support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the
shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his
father would shoot his mother.
Since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of
the murder even though he didn't actually pull the trigger.
The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the
death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist... Further investigation revealed
that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly
despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer mother's murder.
This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23rd, only to be
killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The
son, Ronald Opus, had actually murdered himself. So the medical examiner
closed the case as a suicide.
A true story from Associated Press, (Reported by Kurt Westervelt)
Not even Law and Order would attempt to capture this mess. This is an
unbelievable twist of fate!!! At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for
Forensic Science, AAFS President Dr. Don Harper Mills
astounded his audience with the legal complications of a bizarre death.
Here is the story:
On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald
Opus, and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head.
Mr.Opus had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to
commit suicide. He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency.
As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun
blast passing through a window, which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net
had been installed just below the eighth floor level to protect
some building workers, and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to
complete his suicide the way he had planned.
"Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "Someone who sets out to commit
suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be
what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide."
That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably
would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the
medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.
The room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast emanated,
was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing
vigorously, and he was threatening her with a shotgun!
The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger, he completely
missed his wife, and the pellets went through the window, striking Mr.
Opus.
When one intends to kill subject "A" but kills subject "B" in the
attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject "B." When confronted
with the murder charge, the old man and his wife were both adamant, and
both said that they thought the shotgun was not loaded. The old man said
it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded
shotgun. He had no intention to murder her.
Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is,
assuming the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old
couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal
accident.
It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial
support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the
shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his
father would shoot his mother.
Since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of
the murder even though he didn't actually pull the trigger.
The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the
death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist... Further investigation revealed
that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly
despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer mother's murder.
This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23rd, only to be
killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The
son, Ronald Opus, had actually murdered himself. So the medical examiner
closed the case as a suicide.
A true story from Associated Press, (Reported by Kurt Westervelt)