this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
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[–] lennee@lemmy.world 140 points 2 days ago (7 children)

misdemeanor? so like, murder is illegal, murdering multiple with a truck is kind of legal

[–] NoForwardslashS@sopuli.xyz 49 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It is equal in legality as throwing one sub at an ICE agent.

[–] lennee@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago
[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What if I run over a bunch of ICE agents while riding a submarine sandwich?

[–] Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Fun fact, more cops die in traffic accidents than by shooting.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 40 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Meanwhile a couple of parents in North Carolina are facing manslaughter charges after they let their kids walk to the grocery store while they guided them over the phone and one of them got hit and killed by a car.

[–] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 29 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] fushuan@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I sure hope so, the kid basically ran into traffic. No crosswalk, completely unsupervised.

[–] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

Ran into traffic?

A witness said Legend stepped into the street and was struck before his older brother could pull him back.

The driver struck a slow moving child who witnesses said had stepped off the curb and into the street. Stepped, not ran. The car then struck him before his brother could pull him back. There is no law against what these parents did. The driver on the other hand had an obligation to be aware of her surroundings including the children on the sidewalk beside the street who might step or fall into the street.

It also doesn't matter if the child was unsupervised. Did your parents keep you on a leash? Do you keep your kids on a leash? Even if the parent was there, the child could still have stepped off the curb and been killed. If the brother wasn't fast enough to pull him back, then then there is no basis to assume that the parent necessarily would have been.

Kids, unsupervised or not, do dumb things. The onus is on the driver to slow down when a potential hazard is spotted and to take steps to avoid it. Now, without more information about the setting I cannot say whether or not the driver should be charged. Maybe the kid wasn't visible to the approaching driver, for example. But if the parents are being charged when there is no crime or real negligence, then the driver should be too and the courts can sort it out.

[–] RustyShackleford@programming.dev 35 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So, if you actually read the article, it says he claimed that the steering wheel locked up on him, but the NTSB stated that he suffered from severe fatigue. Maricopa county prosecutors said there wasn't enough evidence to press any felonious charges.

So, at best, this would be a case of manslaughter (which is a felony), but there's no conclusivity on whether it was with malicious intent or premeditated.

So no, he's not a murderer. He negligently fell asleep at the wheel.

[–] lennee@lemmy.world 26 points 2 days ago (3 children)

If u drive while being impaired (by whatever) ur a piece of shit and if u kill anyone doing that (except like suffering a heart attack or something not foreseeable) ur a murderer in my mind.

[–] RustyShackleford@programming.dev 23 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Fortunately, the law doesn't operate on what's in your mind.

Murder implies premeditation. The prosecutor and judge didn't see evidence of premeditation.

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A lot of people use the word "murder" in a colloquial sense and not a strictly legal one. Further some jurisdictions have degrees of murder where other jurisdictions would use manslaughter. I'm assuming the person you responded to meant the lesser charges.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

the law doesn’t operate on what’s in your mind.

are you sure? intent is an element of many crimes.

edit: i tired nvm

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Failing to maintain a vehicle is an impairment. Also "my steering wheel locked up" is not a reason to not hit the brakes.

As someone who is a master of operating under what should be severe impairment I agree, being awake for 48 just leaves me vaguely slow when I talk. Also folks need to know their fucking limits, I refused to drive while I had food poisoning because I couldn't think and also I didn't want to shit myself in my car.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

There is no law and order in the US. If you want to diddle kids, just operate a Joint commission accredited troubled teen facility. There are literally zero requirements, and you can sue anyone who questions you into poverty!

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It doesn't seem to have been done intentionally, so at best it's involuntary manslaughter. They think he may have fallen asleep or something.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Okay so negligent manslaughter.

[–] BussyCat@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

It meets the exact spirt of involuntary manslaughter. Where his negligence either through faulty vehicle maintenance like him claiming that his steering wheel locked up or by being too tired and driving a multi ton vehicle that caused the deaths of multiple people. And yet they dropped some bullshit ass charges instead

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

You actually get rewarded for running over cyclists, one more and it would all have canceled out