Can John Hinckley be tried for the murder of James Brady even though he shot him more than thirty years before he actually died of his injuries?
I think he can be tried for it, but he’d probably be acquitted. But it is an interesting legal case.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
This whole homicide finding seems to be causing a bit of ripple in the media. But it seems to me to be a pretty unsurprising finding, and not really an unusual one in such circumstances.
I blame the bean casserole he ate in 1986.
Or maybe the bizarre coincidental connection between the Hinckley and Bush families.
Hinckley may have been the only guy in 1980 that was obsessed with Jodie Foster instead of having a poster of the bikini clad Carrie Fisher or Farrah Fawcett on his bedroom wall.
It didn’t help.
Apparently in Virginia he can be.
DC, actually, not that I necessarily think Virginia would do anything different.
the father of a good friend of mine from college. He was attorney doing some estate work and the son, who was being cut out of the will, shot and paralyzed him. The father was able to go live in a modified house. This happened while my friend was in high school. A few years later his father died from those injuries. The guy who shot him was tried for murder. I think he ended up getting convicted for manslaughter though.
Sure, they can try him – and it will all go back to the original decision that Hinckley was insane at the time, etc. Won’t go anywhere.
Wasn’t there a “recent” case in Philly: guy shoots a cop, with the result that the cop is paralyzed. Guy is tried, convicted, sentenced to 20 years. Serves the 20 years in prison, got out 5? or so years ago.
Cop finally dies, coroner says it’s from being shot, so now there are murder charges against the guy who shot him. Now, the “died from the shooting” isn’t ironclad, the immediate cause of death was an infection (IIRC), but still the whole thing is a bit weird.
I asked a friend of mine who’s a criminal law professor, and he says yes, and that double jeopardy wouldn’t apply even though Hinckley was tried for attempted murder of Mr. Brady because there is a different element in the crime (Brady’s death).
Causation is an issue, though, and you do have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. Also, of course, there’s the insanity defense, which worked the first time.
The insanity defense has been so tightened down, I don’t think it would work this time. Lack of evidence tying the death to the shooting would seem an obvious obstacle.
“Causation is an issue, though … “
Yes, because, if you think about it, anybody who survives a shooting will eventually die.