A legal anomaly?

[chickenfeet]

On Boxing Day, a fifteen year old girl was killed while shopping. She was hit by a single stray bullet after a gun fight broke out between two youths in a busy part of downtown. Police have arrested the two alleged gunmen and charged them with fire arms related offences. No-one has been charged with murder because they haven't identified who fired the fatal shot. Surely there is something wrong with the law here? Both gunmen are equally culpable and should face murder charges. If a person or persons open(s) up unlawfully with a fire arm in a crowded place, purposing the death of Person A or B, they are surely equally culpable if person X, Y or Z is killed, regardless of which gunman fired the fatal shot.

Comments

[karen2205]

Under English law this would be manslaughter - ie. committing an unlawful act that results in someone's death.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Are you sure about that? If you fire at person A and kill person B that's not murder? What if you set a bomb intending to kill person A and kill 50 other people but not person A?

[karen2205]

Yes. Murder requires that you intend to kill or cause grevious bodily harm to someone. There's limited room for recklessness as to whether you're going to kill or cause GBH being murder, but it's very limited - you have to be extremely reckless ie. setting a bomb off with the intention of killing A, where it is almost certain to kill a number of other people instead.