Monday, February 09, 2009

They could face murder charges!

I am horrified by the damage that has been caused by the wildfires in Australia, and very troubled that some may have been started deliberately.

Kevin Rudd has said that those who have started these fires may face murder charges.

Is there no rubbish that a politician will not speak?

If you start a fire that kills people, you can't face a murder charge unless it can be shown that you intended to kill those who died.

On the other hand, in common law jurisdictions you could face a charge of arson recklessly endangering life, (where no one actually needs to die but death is likely) which attracts the same sentence of life in prison.

You do have to wonder though, what sort of scum starts that sort of fire?

The BBC has this
.

1 comment:

malpas said...

They do have low law enforcement in the fire areas.
EG a park by morwell river - Apex park made pleasant for visitors has slowly been destroyed by yobs on motorbikes - near Boolarra. In the end the powers removed the remnants of the park fixtures.
So Yobs win.