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EXEMPTIONS. ACCIDENTII
Observe the Contradiction Inconsistency
Where the intent as here is only
to steal, & lies where the
intent is only to take away an article
of property, and the taking is
unjustifiable, those of death
which was never intended, nor
even so much as any personal
harm ensues, it is Murder;
punishable with &c.
Whereas in many cases, where
the intent is to kill, that is to
take away life, and that taking
is unjustifiable, it is only Manslaughter,
punishable with, &c.
Murder: for that the Act was unlawful, although A had no intent to hurt the
Boy, nor knew not of him. But if B the owner of the Park had shot at
his own Deer, and without any ill intent had killed the Boy, by the glance of his
arrow, this had been Homicide by misadventure, & a felony.
So if one shoot at one wild fowl upon a tree, and the Arrow killeth any reasonable
creature afar off, without any evil intent in him this is per infortunium; for it
was not unlawful to shoot at the wild fowl; but if he had shot at a Duck or
Hen, or any tame fowl of another man's, and the Arrow by mistakence had
killed a man, this had been murder, for the act was unlawful. The [hereditary]
virus of technical reasoning must have eaten out his a man's memory all idea of
the use reason of affixing the punishment of Death to that crime even on the popular
principle of retribution, before he could have been the first to broach such doctrine.
We may well conjecture from the ideology with which every caprice of that Writer's Lawyer's
was worshipped, that this was the ground rule which governed those decisions which we
delivered at the outset.
From that time these maxims have passed current among the practical writers
from Hale to Foster the Author of the Commentaries who have passed them on from one to another with great tranquillity
at the same value with decisions, except that Hale [the excellency of whose
heart was some correction to the errors of his head judgment] in silence (not to throw
shame upon the memory of his revered predecessor, melted softened down the Murder into
Manslaughter.II
Does not Foster say something
about D Coke's calling it
Mans-laughter
The Author of the Principles of the Penal Law has been is the first who has
had the spirit and discernment to treat them in the manner which they deserve.
Identifier: | JB/063/136/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 63.
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063 |
law in general |
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136 |
exemptions accident |
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002 |
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text sheet |
1 |
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recto |
c11 |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::[gr with crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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20325 |
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