Was President Reagan's press secretary James Brady, who died last Monday, murdered by John Hinckley 33 years ago?
That is the odd question raised by a ruling of Virginia's medical examiner, who has determined that the death was a homicide, evidently finding a sufficient causal connection between the wound and the death. Peter Hermann has this story in the WaPo.
At common law, a death was not a homicide unless it occurred within a year and a day of the blow. States have been scrapping that rule, and in Rogers v. Tennessee, 532 U.S. 451 (2001), the Supreme Court said that if a jurisdiction's year-and-a-day rule had been established in case law, that rule could be scrapped retroactively. (A statute repealing a statutory year-and-a-day rule presumably could not, as that would be an ex post facto law.)
Much as I would love to see Hinckley go to prison, where he should have been all along, I very much doubt that causation could be stretched this far in a criminal case, just as a gut reaction. Plus, the insanity verdict in the original case would probably preclude the government from relitigating his sanity.
That is the odd question raised by a ruling of Virginia's medical examiner, who has determined that the death was a homicide, evidently finding a sufficient causal connection between the wound and the death. Peter Hermann has this story in the WaPo.
At common law, a death was not a homicide unless it occurred within a year and a day of the blow. States have been scrapping that rule, and in Rogers v. Tennessee, 532 U.S. 451 (2001), the Supreme Court said that if a jurisdiction's year-and-a-day rule had been established in case law, that rule could be scrapped retroactively. (A statute repealing a statutory year-and-a-day rule presumably could not, as that would be an ex post facto law.)
Much as I would love to see Hinckley go to prison, where he should have been all along, I very much doubt that causation could be stretched this far in a criminal case, just as a gut reaction. Plus, the insanity verdict in the original case would probably preclude the government from relitigating his sanity.
Leave a comment