We don’t know that it’s true, but it’s what the police are saying he did. They do have some credibility here.
She’s asking about the “I was trying to fake-kidnap her” part, not the entire story.
Seems you’re brighter than the OP. Since we don’t know how she died, there may have been an underlying medical condition involved and the idiot was in a very wrong place at the wrong time.
That’s why it is so important, as per my OP, to emphasize that there is no difference between “fake” kidnappings (when the victim is not in on the prank) and real kidnappings. There is no difference because they are precisely the same thing: plain old regular kidnapping.
So, by saying, “The accused has explained this by saying he meant only to stage a fake kidnapping,” we are muddying the waters, and obscuring the equally true fact that “the accused explained this by saying he planned and executed a kidnapping of the victim.”
Do we need to delve into the mind of the perp to determine if he subjectively understood this kidnapping as a fun practical joke? Nope! Because the uncontested account of what went down makes out all the elements of real-deal kidnapping. And there is no affirmative defense “I was just having a lark!” to real-deal kidnapping. So, we should all be utterly uninterested in how he personally justified the commission of a felony to himself. Who cares?!? Enjoy your lifetime vacation to Maine State Prison!
Nobody disagrees with this, but Gawker wrote a headline that gave more information. They’re a news outlet, not an indictment handed in by a prosecutor.
This case seems to have gotten a lot of news coverage precisely because of the weird circumstances behind it. Maybe your argument is with people who read crazy news stories, not Gawker. Of course, you read this story…
Or she may have had a cold and a blocked nose, and the duct tape on her mouth meant she suffocated. And I’m sure one of the lawyers will correct me if I’m wrong, but it doesn’t matter HOW a victim died in the felony murder laws - if you kidnap someone, and they have a heart attack, or a stroke, or fall down the stairs, or any damn thing while they are your prisoner, you have committed murder.
And who has said otherwise?
I think Lute Skywatcher did, with his “underlying medical condition” and “wrong place at the wrong time” comment. Still murder.
Man Kidnaps Woman with Intent (Per His Own Recounting) to Subsequently Stage Rescue; Accidentally Kills Her (Which Act None-the-Less Legally Qualifies as Murder); Sundry Additional Details as Reported by our Correspondent Upon the Scene
You seem to be reading more into that than is there. Same with the headline.
Again, he didn’t stage a fake kidnapping. He really kidnapped her. The only thing that he was going to fake was the rescue. It was a real kidnapping with a staged rescue, except he accidentally killed his victim while really abducting her.
It is fucking nonsense to say he “staged” the kidnapping, unless you can say that the next time I go to a bank and point a gun at the teller and demand the money I’m staging a bank robbery.
Exactly. He may not have actually intended to kill the girl, but he did intend to kidnap her because that is what he did.
We don’t yet know if he caused her death nor if her death was a resonably forseeable consequence of his actions.
I said that an hour ago.
[QUOTE=Lemur866]
It is fucking nonsense to say he “staged” the kidnapping, unless you can say that the next time I go to a bank and point a gun at the teller and demand the money I’m staging a bank robbery.
[/QUOTE]
If you’re robbing to the bank in disguise so you can pretend to break up the robbery and look like a hero later, yes, I might say that’s staged. The point is that the scheme involved not just kidnapping, but deception afterward. The headline makes that clear, and the objection is really pretty dumb. Gawker describes the kidnapping and makes it sound plenty real, and notes that he was charged with kidnapping.
That is near a common use of the word “stage” actually. It usually gets applied when there is a conspiracy to accomplish the crime. “The gang staged an armored car heist” is using staging Staging in the sense that a number of criminals have to follow a plan in a way similar to how a theater company follows a script. It does not imply that the crime is faked. In this case it was a one man show, but he was following a script of sorts.
In the OP case, the perpetrator WAS committing real crimes, AND conducting a bit of theater to try to impress the victim. Just as TSA conducts real searches while performing theater to make some of the passengers feel safe.
Perhaps we should object when the police conduct a search. They have no baton, and no score, and no musicians…how is that possibly conducting?
The purpose of a headline is to give an idea of the contents if a story in as few words as possible, not to construct a legally defensible description if the events – the use of the word “staged” here gives the reader enough of an idea that there is something different about this kidnapping story. After all, the probability that the girl had been abducted had been known for months.
Shitty news sources contain shitty journalism.
Film at 11!
No one has shown any actual errors in the story. They’re just bring pedantic about the word choices in the headline.
Does anyone who dislikes the headline want to try writing a better one - one that’s “accurate” and still catches a reader’s interest? Gawker’s headline is 66 characters including spaces.
I thought my headline was pretty good. Although in retrospect I probably should have listed their ages.
“Proof That Not Wearing Seat Belts Can Kill You!”