What would have been the result besides one dead astronaut if Neil Armstrong had murdered Buzz Aldrin on the way to the moon? Would the fact that they were in space matter? They were, after all, in an American space craft. Is there any sort of precedent for this scenario?
“The State of registration of the aircraft is competent to exercise jurisdiction over offences and acts committed on board.”
Ditto for spacecraft, I should imagine.
I don’t think this one would be that hard to try. The were both federal employees so federal law would apply somehow. If we had spaceships zooming all over the place with passengers and cargo, the situation isn’t unprecedented. Maritime law already deals with these things on the open seas. Maritime law can get complicated and is its own law speciality but a ship owned by one nation with only crew from that nation would always get tried by that nation.
If he left the body behind on the Moon, who could prove anything?
Well for one, Alan Shepard would be a witness. I mean, two men go out of lunar lander, only one comes back. Armstrong could certainly just say Buzz’s suit failed and he died, but since they didn’t travel very far on the first mission, you’d think he would be able to haul back a body, especially with Shepard’s help. And even if he did get it back, he’s have to actually make it look like the suit did fail, and wasn’t just smashed with a moon rock. I guess the best story wuold be to say Buzz tripped and smashed his face shield on a rock. Still, I’m sure that they would be able ot nail Armstrong. It’s hard to invent a lie, and then stick to it under lots of interrogation, getting all the details consistant every time you tell the story.
Just wondering - I know that the Apollo astronauts all had military backgrounds, but were they still officially in the Navy/Air Force during the missions? If so, I assume that Armstrong could have been court-martialled, irrespective of where the crime took place.
Err - I think you mean Michael Collins. 
I thought only two astronauts descended to the lunar surface, the other one remained in orbit around the moon?
Noted legal philospher Jack Handy actually thought through this very situation:
"Fear can sometimes be a useful emotion. For instance, let’s say you’re an astronaut on the moon and you fear your partner has been turned into Dracula.
Jack Handey
Next time he goes out for the moon pieces, wham! You just slam the door behind him and blast off. He might call you on the radio and say he’s not Dracula, but you just say, ‘Think again, batman.’"
Jack Handy
:smack:
As a matter of fact, I do. And I also was mistaken on how the whole Apollo missions worked. At any rate, Collins would still wonder where the heck Buzz was, and it wold still be hard for Armstrong to maintain the lie that his suit failed.
“Buzz’s body fell down a hole. It was too deep for me to reach him. A true National Tragedy. Who wants pie?”
Nitpick.
Armstrong was a Marine.
They would turn off the public transmission long enough for the stage crew to assist Armstrong in getting Aldrin back on the LM.
Nope, Navy.
Although Armstrong had served in the military, he was one of the first civilian astronauts.
That would cover events occurring aboard the CM or the LM. What if Neil deliberately punctured Buzz’s suit during their EVA??
Talk about your “Buzz kill”.
And this restriction is equally easy to avoid. All Armstrong would have to do is radio in his notice of resignation
before offing Aldrin. Or if the notice has to be in writing, he could write up his resignation beforehand, give it in a sealed envelope to his boss, and then tell his boss to open it once he was on the moon.
… And his boss would radio to him that he was now illegally using government property. Armstrong might then be given a choice, … return aboard the LM and face theft charges or leave the LM immediately, sans his government spacesuit.
It’s not the murderer that has to be an officer of the U.S., though, it’s the murderee.
18 U.S.C. § 1114 criminalizes the murder of U.S. officers and employees in the performance of or on account of their official duties; an earlier (1958) version of the law that attempted to list every single such officer protected made clear that NASA employees fell in this category. Federal law on special maritime and territorial jurisdiction expressly includes space ships headed to and from the Moon:
18 U.S.C. § 7.
And, if he said ‘fuck it. I killed him and I ain’t coming back! Like a James Cagney moment…’TOP OF THE WORLD, MA!’.
How much supplies were on board? How many days could he survive? How long before the authorities could get up there in another module? And, where’s Collins in all this? “You’re on your own Neely…I’m outta here’.
Many questions.