4 young teens, may be charged with murder for scaring someone to death, does the punishment fit the crime?

Why not consider if this happened to one of your loved ones? (Most people won't)

Their intent was clear - they brought fear into someone and caused death.

The crime is manslaughter - the punishment should be sufficient since that was the crime.

If someone holds up a bank, and a patron is scared enough to have a heart attack and dies, shouldn't the perpetrators of the robbery be charged with murder since they were the contributing factor? Yes.

Yo it's Me

I hope they are sentence to at least 25 to life. The subways in Philly are a disgrace, very scary for decent people, there are a lot of young thugs running around intimidating decent, hard-working people who need public transportation to get to work (a lot of poor people have no alternative but to use public transportation). They should make an example out of them and punish anyone who threatens or tries to intimidate anyone. This also seems like a clear case of a hate crime to boot, but I don't think it matters since people of all races are harassed and intimidated by this type of behavior.

President Elect Barack H. Obama

If your actions cause the death of a human being, then you're guilty of murder.

Mercer Devil

Sounds okay to me. They should not be harassing innocent people just to get their kicks. In this case, they caused someone's death. By their actions, it cannot be proven they did not intend to hurt that person.

Dan W

I don't think they could level a charge serious enough.

People are saying "boys will be boys...?" A man is dead.

EDIT: Whoever is thumbing me down on this one ought to be charged with aiding and abetting; they're enabling these boys to get away with this through mistaken public opinion. This isn't a matter of opinion. As I said before, a man is dead. Why does that not sink in?

idiots......
where do kids learn to act like that?...I think it's at home..........roll the parents up too..

nonldsinutah

Murder is a stretch. I don't think those little F@$#*@% had any intention of actually killing someone. I am also sure they didn't know that the person had asthma.

So mansalughter would be all that the prosecutor could probably get a conviction on.

Now, if these little monsters knew their victim had asthma and that it could be fatal, then murder chargers should be filed.

Either way these geniuses will spend a lot of time behind bars. And rightfully so. The one that is currently in custody should be singing like a bird and rolling over on his loser friends. This is the only way he is going to save his neck.

Then there is the civil trial where the victims family sues the suspects and their families into bankruptcy.

What a way to spend your summer. Behind bars or in a court room. Idiots.

cog1233

Absolutely! They should get the maximum and be tried as adults.Kids now a days need to learn that there are serious consequinces for their actions.Just because they get life doesn't mean they will be in there for life.

rebelrose2480

Do I think they should be charged? Yes
Do I think they should be charged as adults? Yes
Do I think it should be a murder charge? IDK

Fact of the matter is they killed someone even if that was not what they intended to happen. Because of their actions someone is died. They need to be held accountable for their actions.

ETA: according to this article one of these boys admit they hit him once or twice before the guy hit his knees and then had a seizure. In light of that I am thinking maybe Murder 2 or something.
http://www.individual.com/story.php?story=79996809

they should have thought about doing that before harrassing someone. they are fools to begin with and they did intentionaly cause this man to die. if this man was your brother or husband would you think the punishment to harsh? dead is forever while these guys should run free? no, murder and life in prison is a good sentence.

LORI

He didn't just die of an asthma attack, the coroner said he died of 'blunt force injuries' and an asthma attack.

From what I read, they jumped him from behind, kicked him, and hit him in the head.
Even if thats not exactly what happened, whatever they did caused the man to sustain some kind of injury, have an asthma attack and die. Thats murder, maybe not first degree murder but they definitely caused his death. They should charge them as adults and send them to prison.

TOM

Their intent is there. They should suffer there consequences. Sounds like those kids didnâ€™t know when to stop. They should serve time.

Three Dog

I think if the man suffered from an asthma attack they should have helped him or called for help, since they didn't do that at least they should be charged fully

ahsoasho2u2

Let the punishment fit the crime. Some will say, "How did they know he was going to die?" Others say they took a life?
The ones who say too severe are not the ones who lost someone. It is very tragic both ways, but when you act out and taunt someone into believing your going to kill them?
What if the man pulled a gun and killed all 4 teens, then what? A public outcry for gun control?
I say they should have to do hard time for at least 7 years of their young adult lives. Believe me they are not sorry, only sorry they are caught. I f they were let go they would do it all over again, and not even give it a second thought.

nannywho

They need to get the maximum sentence permissible for their crime (probably manslaughter, not murder). It is time we stop excusing people because of their 'youth' for heinous crimes. Because they think they can get away with it, the problem of mindless violence as a leisure activity increases. If parents had the backbone to say "no" to children from infancy, these yobbs would not think they are entitles to do whatever they like.

KIB

This is a tough one. I really have to look at the victims family. I wish we would be able to ask the victim. We have a person that will never be around again because of someone else. Teenagers are one of the reasons our crime stats are going up. They have the power to make decisions without any mature thinking. Does this differ any from a Person driinking to much and killing an innocent family? Perhaps, because the thinking becomes blurred with alcohol. The families of the teens are also victims, but perhaps they are victims because they did not pay attention to teaching values. Obviously these teens have only values that matter to themselves. Life sentences, I do not think they are facing life sentences although they need to be punished and perhaps a period of incarceration is necessary. This will stay with them the rest of their lives, it is imiportant that we do not make these teenagers victims but remember they are teenage criminals and criminals need to be delt with accordingly. Punishment must be definet and must protect society.

Pink Tresses

I say they should be charged with murder, and in addition a hate crime to boot.

And according to the article they did a heck of a lot more than just harassing him.

toast

they won't get sentenced to death but they should go to juvie.
Killing a man even without physically doing it is stilling ending an innocent man's life.

btw those teens need to get a life.
Can't they find anything better to do than hang out in the train station when they cut school.

Daniel H

The question is, when he started having the asthma attack did they stop harassing him? How many people were around? Did they call for help? Did the man have medicine on him?

Murder would be impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he didn't coincidently happen to have an asthma attack from a pre-existing condition and a direct causality to the harassment to the death. Premeditation would be difficult to prove as well.

If I were the judge and the evidence supported it, the penalty would be a large amount of community service and 5 years probation.

reinformer

Yeah, the buggers were stupid. But murder? Never happen unless the judge don't care what the charges are. Its manslaughter at most or criminal negligence causing death(harrassment). 10 lashes and send them home with 500 community service hours to be served.

There was no felonious crime with intent.He could have died in a dozen other ways, train whisle,etc.

If he was a loved one, his family would have been hesitant about letting him out of the house.

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