Is that the case? I thought there was a degree to which you are responsible for the state, and contents, of a car you drive in the public roads. So saying "I had no idea it was there’ basically becomes an affirmative defense (it is, in practice, for drug offenses, you aren’t getting off by saying that when the cops find a bunch of drugs in your trunk without pretty compelling evidence you didn’t put them there)
There is always tension between the ideal of “Guilty until proven innocent” and the practicalities of “Found in circumstances very damningly unlikely to be innocent.”
More than that cannot possibly be answered within FQ boundaries. My late wife was a lawyer, albeit not one who practiced criminal law. In her words:
The answer to every legal question is “It depends.”
In fact I’m now wondering how this thread survived 41 posts and 5 days without being shifted to IMHO.
It’s always the case that if you are in circumstances indicating possession of… then you would have to explain why you should not be expected to be liable.
This sums up everything legal very succinctly.
[Moderating]
Moving to IMHO.
I’ve said the exact same thing many times!
The OP’s question, “You get caught with a dead body, are you going to prison?” is really jumping the gun here.
You go to prison if you are convicted of a felony, and the judge sentences you to incarceration.
Before that happens, though, you need to be charged with a felony. And then found (or plead) guilty. That’s not yet established.
As others have said, of course you have a lot of explaining to do. If you can’t explain how you ended up with the dead body, or if you weren’t treating it right, you might be arrested and charged with a crime.
(In Florida, crimes regarding the misuse of a corpse range from a misdemeanor to a 3rd degree felony (unless you are getting freaky with it - that’s a 2nd degree felony). Although a 3rd degree felony is punishable by up to 5 years in prison, a person with an otherwise clean record is likely to get probation)
But, ultimately, evidence of that crime will have to be gathered by law enforcement investigators, who will have to present a case to prosecutors, who may then present the evidence to a grand jury.
So if your answer to “how did you end up with a dead body” is “I don’t know”, and there’s no other evidence connecting you to the death or the storage of that body, then, no, I don’t think you are going to prison.
But it really depends on all of the other potential facts that might connect you to this corpse.
I sure didn’t think the saying originated with her. It’s probably carved into the stone lintel over the entrance to the law school at many universities.
Slight tangent, but I’m surprised how many times the plot in a police procedural involves someone who comes across a body and doesn’t report it. I should think in the real world, that’s the first thing someone would do. So is that just a plot device, or are some people really like that?
Yeah and I was asking: is a body in your possession alone considered enough evidence to be guilty of a serious felony? It’s not a particularly open ended question in any given jurisdiction IMO (“are going to prison” is, that wasn’t probably the best title)
I mean if I’d said “You get caught with a a bunch of drugs, are you going to prison”? The answer is unambiguously yes. In that just the drugs in your possession is enough to be convicted of a felony like possession with intent to supply, a felony punishable by many years in prison. Yeah there are some ways you can stay out of jail (good lawyers, plea deal, extenuating circumstances, being president) but “yes” is still the correct answer.
I’m traipsing through the woods or a national park or even a city park. Being as unusually observant as I am, I notice a body mostly hidden in the bushes.
I now have a decision to make. Call the cops and have my name associated to that body? Or keep walking and they will never have any reason to connect me to the body? Which is better for me, and only me? The body is dead; neither decision affects whoever that body used to be in the slightest.
If I’m the sort who dislikes controversy and brushes with the police that just might result in me being scapegoated, well, why would I sign up to be a murder suspect?
But that body may have family…
But it’s against the law to possess certain drugs. I don’t think it’s against the law to possess a dead body. It happens to people when their relatives die is natural causes all the time.
Also, this is kind of like the difference between how rape victims and robbery victims are treated. To an outside observer who doesn’t know the victims, it’s at least slightly possible the rape victim wanted sex and then changed their mind. It’s not very plausible that the robbery victim wanted to give away that money and then changed their mind. Similarly, if there are drugs in the trunk, it seems somewhat likely the owner of the car wanted them there. But who wants a dead body in their trunk?
Of course.
But my duty to expose myself to hostile police interest for their benefit is what now? The more obvious the body is and the more heavily traveled the area, the more I can safely conclude somebody less cautious (or less foresightful?) will report it soon enough.
To be clear, historically I have thought as you do. Of course you call 911 while standing over the body and remain in place to guard the scene until the police arrive. But historically many people have not; thinking the police were nothing but taxpayer-paid thugs seeking a way to ruin your life the instant they notice you exist. So avoiding such notice was Job number 1.
As our country changes into Russia before our very eyes I find myself thinking ever more defensively about my relationship with the police. Who to date have never given me personally any reason to doubt their collective sincerity in trying to do the right thing all day everyday everywhere.
But presumably it does become a crime at some point? The classic example of the police discovering the mummified corpse is a long dead family in a house, they are getting charged with something even if it’s some fairly minor crime about mishandling a corpse
True. But juries don’t like cases where “whydunnit” is left unanswered by the prosecution. It is like trying to get a murder conviction with no body- an uphill battle.
This does not increase my confidence in that Police dept.
That is not how Justice works in America. The Prosecution must prove you are guilty.
I dont remember that being common, but the police will hold you and question you for a while if you do call it in. So, I guess if you are rushing somewhere important, and see some shoes and maybe legs sticking out of a bush in a park, maybe saying to yourself-" It’s only a homeless person sleeping" might be the best idea for you.
That sentence doesnt prase for me. But if the body is well hidden and clearly has been there long than you owned the house, then yeah, you will be inconvenienced , but not likely charged with anything.
I had a buddy on whose ranch some indigenous people remains were found when they hired a backhoe to dig a trench. The police came out with a coroner, said the remains were very old, then some archeologists and native american rights people came out. True, he had to dig that trech elsewhere, and had a team in his back 40 or wherever for a year, but no one ever thought there was a crime involved.
Well, no- if you are delivering them to a hospital, or you are a doctor, or you work for a Pharma company, or you are a police officer bringing evidence back from a raid, or many other things. People who have bought a used car that had drugs carefully hidden have not always been convicted. So, altho being caught with a kilo of bolivian marching powder in your car is certainly a very bad thing, it is not always automatically a prison sentence.
Yeah that didn’t make much sense, as written. It should have read: The classic example is when the police discover the mummified corpse of a long dead family member in a house, they are getting charged with something even if it’s some fairly minor crime about mishandling a corpse
Yeah or if it’s just a holodeck simulation and not real life at all. But still I’m happy answering “yes” to the question if none of those things are explicitly described.
Yeah I’m with you here. True there is a non zero chance of the police trying to pin it on you. But still finding a body and not reporting it is an immoral thing to do. Regardless of how messed up our police and criminal justice system is
But that’s why lawyers, who prefer to be precise, would tell you it depends. Because there are always exceptions to every rule.
Even if I only found a body in the park, there’s going to be an investigation & I’m going to be delayed until the ‘right’ cop (ie. detective) gets there & talks to me. I may have somewhere to be or a flight to catch.
One also may be wanted for something totally unrelated & talking to the cops & not giving your information is going to be suspicious to them.
Finding a body in the woods or a park is going to be a completely different situation than the police finding it in your car.
All of my knowledge about criminal law comes from TV shows, but my assumption is that being a person who stumbles upon a body, with no other connection, is not going to make you into a suspect for the vast majority of cases.
Maybe I can still hold onto this belief because I live in Japan and am refusing to follow this slide into totalitarianism.