News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Joe Ligon: America's 'longest juvenile lifer' on 68 years in prison. Parent comment

Re:Joe Ligon: America's 'longest juvenile lifer' on 68 years... by nradov on Saturday May 15, 2021 @12:03PM (#27166386)
Under US criminal law, defendants can often be found guilty of murder due to participation in a group criminal activity even if they didn't directly attack the victim. For example, if bank robbers kill a security guard the get-away driver will often be charged with murder even if he never physically entered the bank.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Joe Ligon: America's 'longest juvenile lifer' on 68 years... by cko on Saturday May 15, 2021 @03:35PM (#27168192)
Felony murder? I was on the jury of one case. I kinda felt bad for the defendant - he was 18 and some juvenile in his group pulled the trigger. Probably accidentally.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Joe Ligon: America's 'longest juvenile lifer' on 68 years... by kingsuper20 on Saturday May 15, 2021 @03:18PM (#27168044)
My guess is that if a pair of robbers hit a liquor store and the liquor store clerk killed one of them, the other can be charged with some form of murder.

edit: easy enough to find.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/hillsborough/2019/12/16/robber...

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/missouri/articles/20...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Joe Ligon: America's 'longest juvenile lifer' on 68 years... by ipaddr on Saturday May 15, 2021 @12:19PM (#27166523)
That's a recent law so it shouldn't apply to this timeperiod.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Joe Ligon: America's 'longest juvenile lifer' on 68 years... by xyzzyz on Saturday May 15, 2021 @12:31PM (#27166639)
Felony murder rule is old and well established in common law, dating centuries back.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Joe Ligon: America's 'longest juvenile lifer' on 68 years... by DiffEq on Saturday May 15, 2021 @03:03PM (#27167928)
How far back…well there is a scripture in the Old Testament that essentially says if you are party to a crime then you are just as guilty as the one who committed the crime…so this common law practice actually dates back at least 4000 years. Also Japanese law held the same types of practices for thousands of years and Is m sure many other ancient cultures.
[ Parent | on HN ]