• Earthman_Jim@lemmy.zip
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      8 days ago

      Negligent homicide. They didn’t plan to kill their kids, they did it accidentally by virtue of their ignorance and ego.

      • Etterra@discuss.online
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        8 days ago

        They deliberately denied a lifesaving medical procedure, that’s first fucking degree murder.

        • Bad_Ideas_In_Bulk@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Mens rei is a thing. For murder you need to prove they intended the result, not just that they intended the action.

          That’s why charges like negligent homicide exist.

          • Etterra@discuss.online
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            8 days ago

            They won’t stop doing it if they don’t suffer real consequences. Murder 1, life in prison.

              • Robust Mirror@aussie.zone
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                8 days ago

                Potentially yeah. In some states it can be charged as a misdemeanour with as little as probation or no jail time at all, especially for first offenders. Alabama treats criminally negligent homicide as a Class A misdemeanour with a maximum of one year imprisonment and/or $6,000 in fines in standard cases.

                In many states it’s treated as a low to mid-level felony, and the penalty typically doesn’t exceed three years’ imprisonment. Some states go up to 10 years and Montana goes up to 20.

                So while it can have consequences, it doesn’t necessarily have meaningful enough consequences depending on many factors.

              • Etterra@discuss.online
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                8 days ago

                Okay, here, I looked up the specifics. In Illinois, where I live, negligent homicide is a Class 2 Felony, with a maximum of 14 or 28 years, depending on case details. Source.

                1st Degree Murder is 60 years. Source.

                I’m not a lawyer, but instead a layman. That said, I argue that based on the law as cited, the parents had no lawful justification, and that their actions carried a high likelihood of death. Obviously a lawyer making such an argument in court would by necessity have to back that up, especially if they trotted out religious nonsense as a “lawful justification,” but that’s what they get paid for.

                A person who kills an individual without lawful justification commits first degree murder if, in performing the acts which cause the death: (2) he or she knows that such acts create a strong probability of death or great bodily harm to that individual or another;

                • Sunflier@lemmy.world
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                  7 days ago

                  For the (3)/onward, was there an “and” used as the conjunction or an “or”?