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At the 1994 annual awards dinner given to the American Association for forensice science, AAFS President Don Harper Mills astounded his audience in San Diego with the legal complications of a bizarre death. Here is the story:
"On March 23rd 1994, the medical exaimner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. The deceased had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his despondency). As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been erected at the eight floor level to protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of this."
"Ordinarily" Dr. Mills continued "a person who sets out to commit suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended. That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below probably would not have changed his mode of death from suicide to homicide. But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have been succesful caused the medical examiner to feel that he had homicide on his hands. The room on the ninth floor where the shotgunb last emanated was occupied by an elderly gentleman and his wife. They were arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset that when he pulled the trigger, he completly missed his wife and the pellets went through a window, striking Opus. When one intends to kill subject A btu kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with this charge the old man and his wife were both adamant that neither knew that the shotgunw as loaded. The old man said it was his long standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her - therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couples son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal incident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her sons finanical 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. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
There was an exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mothers murder. This led him, Ronald Opus, to jump off the ten-story building on March 23rd only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a ninth story window.
The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
Sorry about the spelling mistakes that I'm sure there are, I had to hand type that.
"On March 23rd 1994, the medical exaimner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. The deceased had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his despondency). As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been erected at the eight floor level to protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of this."
"Ordinarily" Dr. Mills continued "a person who sets out to commit suicide ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended. That Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below probably would not have changed his mode of death from suicide to homicide. But the fact that his suicidal intent would not have been succesful caused the medical examiner to feel that he had homicide on his hands. The room on the ninth floor where the shotgunb last emanated was occupied by an elderly gentleman and his wife. They were arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun. He was so upset that when he pulled the trigger, he completly missed his wife and the pellets went through a window, striking Opus. When one intends to kill subject A btu kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B. When confronted with this charge the old man and his wife were both adamant that neither knew that the shotgunw as loaded. The old man said it was his long standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her - therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident. That is the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couples son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal incident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her sons finanical 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. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
There was an exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mothers murder. This led him, Ronald Opus, to jump off the ten-story building on March 23rd only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a ninth story window.
The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.
Sorry about the spelling mistakes that I'm sure there are, I had to hand type that.
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