Is it possible for someone in a persistent vegetative state to commit a crime, under the laws of any jurisdiction, while they are in the state? Obviously they cannot form intent, which is not an element of every crime. They also cannot decide anything in connection with anything; is that an absolute handicap with regards to committing a crime?
The great philosopher confessed crimes committed while at his mother’s breast; can someone with less capacity than an infant be guilty?
Statuary rape and possession of child pornography? A child has sex with the veggie-person, takes a picture of the both of them while in contact, puts picture in veggie-person’s pocket.
Doesn’t statutory rape require at least the intent of having sex with a person (who happens to be someone who cannot legally consent to sex with you, even if you didn’t know it at the time)?
I accidentally my mom!
If the person set up a booby-trap in their house, walked outside and had a stroke that put them into a persistent vegetative state, and then a year later someone triggered the booby-trap and was killed, that would be a crime committed by the coma-dude. It doesn’t become a crime until the trap is triggered.
There are a bunch of strict liability laws where a person can’t claim incapacitation as a defense. You get caught with it, you are guilty regardless of how it got there. Some types of drug possession and possession of child pornography are among them. Plant some of those on Comatose Kenny and call the cops because a guy like that is a clear menace to society. There are also murder charges that can be brought even during an accidental death when another felony leads to it. Maybe you could put some poison that can be absorbed through the skin on his illegal goods and get him for murder too when one of the investigators dies. I have no idea how this would play out in real life but it is a fun game to see how many things you could string together to get some serious convictions based on the letter of the law.
Although strict liability laws eliminate the question of intent , like all laws they regulate conduct. Speeding is a strict liability offense, but if a larger vehicle is literally pushing mine and causing mine to exceed the speed limit, I’ve done nothing wrong- I’m not driving in excess of the speed limit, the guy pushing me is. Every offense is either an act of prohibited conduct or an omission of required conduct. A person in a persistent vegetative state can neither act nor fail to act. I suppose he or she could commit a crime is the crime began before the vegetative state and was completed afterward.
Well, is the US justice system anyway, “committing” a crime is different from being charged with one, which is different from being found guilty of one.
I am not a lawyer, but…
Supposing someone in a vegetative state were to spasm and flail in a seizure, knock over something that caused an electrical short that caused a spark that led to a fire with an oxygen tank that severely damaged the hospital (but who was evacuated in time).
Now let’s say that the hospital has an building insurance policy which pays less for the damages if it was due to negligence - claiming that that is now part of the hospital’s malpractice coverage instead (with a different underwriter). And guess what, that is exactly what the insurance co. is claiming, that the nursing staff should have been on hand, or that the known (or “should have known”) potential for the patient to have such violent spasms should have resulted in him being strapped down, especially with respect to the oxygen tank, or somesuch.
Meanwhile the underwriter malpractice coverage is pushing back just as much that this is not entirely theirs to pay. They say the accident was akin to an arson, a criminal act with a known responsible agent. Even if it was involuntary, it is on his insurance company or family to pay at least some of the cost.
So, now what?
Would a cop actually arrest a guy in a coma?
Would the DA prosecute the case?
Would a jury convict the vegetative defendant of some degree of arson?
That seems very unlikely, considering the DA is an elected office and you can imagine the kind of campaign poison it would be to prosecute a Guy In A Coma (GIAC).
It would still be possible the either or both insurance companies in such a situation would pursue some kind of civil (non-criminal) liability ruling to get money out of the GIAC’s medical insurance company or even his family. That wouldn’t be “criminal”, just “at fault and owing restitution”. But even there, I think the negative press would probably outweigh the financial reward to be gained.
What you say sounds reasonable but I don’t think it is universally true. People have been prosecuted for marijuana planted on a remote corner of their property cultivated by others that they had no reasonable way to know about. A passenger in your car could put something under the seat and you can get nailed for that. Child pornography was another example chosen for a reason. If it is on your computer, it is yours. Modern technology makes that the last claim both completely plausible and yet hard to fight. Hackers could have broken into your computer and put it there but most people that get caught make that claim whether they are guilty or not.
What about killing a migratory bird? One that flies into an open window and lands on the vegetative person’s medical appliance, killing it instantly?
Failing to file income tax returns?
This would be a defense if you were in a vegetative state. If the standard is “knew or should have known” you’d be off the hook.
This is the most likely way it could happen. Some kind of conspiracy. The planning took place before, the execution after. All conspirators are guilty of all the crimes of the conspiracy.
Loitering?
A person can be arrested, prosecuted or even convicted without committing a crime. Just because someone says that corner of the property is so remote he had no way to know about the pot doesn’t mean it’s true and even if it is true, the judge or jury may not believe him. Same goes for the gun, and as for the computer , it doesn’t matter who owns the computer. What matters who has control of the computer- if I own it and leave it at a friend’s house and he has control over it, any porn on there is his, not mine.That’s how people get prosecuted for material on computers that their employers own but they have exclusive use of. A person in a PVS has control over nothing. While I suppose there could be some sort of bizarre situation in which the police arrest someone in a PVS for child porn which was placed on his computer after he entered the PVS, a prosecutor actually prosecutes the case, and a jury convicts him he still would not have committed a crime.
If the person stays in a vegetative state past April 15th, and fails to pay their taxes – yep, the IRS will get them.
Wasn’t this the plot of an episode of Monk?
That was the first thing that came to mind for me. Also failing to pay any bills that accrued while they were awake or recurring bills that continued to accrue while they were asleep (mortgage, credit card bills, cell phone etc).
You can’t be convicted or even tried for a crime when you are in a persistent vegetative state because you would be unable to participate in your own defense.
Wouldn’t the duty to pay those bills (& file tax returns) fall on Coma Guy’s next-of-kin or some court-appointed trustee?
At least at the federal level, that’s only a crime if the failure to file is “willful.”
I don’t think that’s a crime in any state.
There is an episode of Detective Monk with a plot-line along this matter. Watch the show; you’ll enjoy it.
EDIT: Scarlett beat me to it!