Self Defense Or Manslaughter?

[Esckey]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2007/05/11/beating-dropped.html

Manslaughter charges were dismissed Friday against four youths accused of beating an Edmonton man on a bus.

Stefan William Conley, 35, died in hospital after a group of teenagers allegedly swarmed him on a city bus on March 2, 2006.

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I personnaly don't think its self-defence, CBC fails to mention that the four accused were drunk at the time, and egging the victim on and taunting him.

Going "you wanna go? uh do ya?" and then beating the man up isn't exactly self defence.

 

[Red Door]

He grabbed a kid by the neck, it's self-defense. But, they went too far. You don't need to kill a man because he grabs you, you should do something a little more responsible, like get off the bus, alerting the driver, etc.

 

[skadistic]

I'd have charged them with murder. And it sickens me to see these punks get away with it.

 

[Esckey]

I mostly arguing the self defence, I'm not to pleased that they are getting off, but to use the "self defence" clause seems lame and underhanded. Especially since he was one of 5 men killed that year all by boys between the ages of 16 and 19. BTW most of the other killers got off free as well, one group got community service and another has like a year of house arrest.

 

[soul_warrior]

bollocks to self defence.

4 vs 1 is never self defence.

 

[silver 2039]

Definatley not self defence at all. They should all be charged with murder.

 

[Brighteye]

It's definitely not murder: the 'rare type of haemorrhage' was an unfortunate accident.
They should get some sort of ASBO at the least. Twice the legal limit probably means that he'd had a couple of drinks, since the legal limit is so low.

 

[Fairy]

Thats manslaughter - fair enough to pull away a friend but to actually hurt him too?

 

[ComradeDavo]

Without knowing why he originally grabbed one of them by the neck, i can't give an opinion. If they were threatening him, then it's murder, and vice versa.

 

[Tboy]

Definitely manslaughter, but of the highest degree. It would be hard to show it as murder, seeing as a).The other man attacked them first (but this shouldn't be much of a defence, they provoked him) and b).They were drunk at the time and not in full control of their actions (but they were still aware enough to know the consequences).

They should be convicted of manslaughter and given the maximum sentence.

EDIT: Hmm... after reading it, possibly not manslaughter. But getting off scott free is atrocious. Considering that the force used would not normally cause death, assault? I'm not that familiar with Canadian law, but I don't think it's that different to British law.

 

[skadistic]

Gross negligent homicide maybe. Should get at least 20-25 years in a maxi-pen and forced to do hard labour.

 

[bhsup]

The other youths jumped in to pull their friend away, and while they used force that would not ordinarily kill a person, Conley suffered a rare type of hemorrhage, said Rosborough.

If that's true, then I'd say it was self defense with a tragic ending.

 

[emzie]

Gross negligent homicide maybe. Should get at least 20-25 years in a maxi-pen and forced to do hard labour.

Murders don't get that here. No one gets hard labour, seeing as the system is designed to rehab cons. Oddly enough, released cons have a lower repeat felon rate than they you down south.

Thanks for adding the u

Anyway, the kids should at least face assult charges. Or drunk and disorderly. Or something.

 

[kuukkeli]

Impossible to comment without knowing the details. Also according the article it was the deceased who had "a blood alcohol level that was twice the legal limit" not the four youths. Anyways, I don't comment the case as I don't know enough.

 

[Jawz II]

Self-slaughter gets my vote.

Seriously I dunno what to say, I wasn't there.
I tend to think that if you get your ass kicked by 4 kids you should have your ass kicked, at the same time if he died from his injuries, the bastards must've kept beating his ass well after he was down, so they should be punished somehow.

Wouldn't it be great if you could recive "an assbeating" as punishment in court? What would you rather take, a year in prison or a beating that would land you in the hospital for 3 weeks (I'd take the beating)?

 

[GenMarshall]

I see it as Self-Defense gone mad. I can understand if the man was cornered and his life was threatened, but what he did was a bit too much.

 

[History_Buff]

It's definitely not murder: the 'rare type of haemorrhage' was an unfortunate accident.
They should get some sort of ASBO at the least. Twice the legal limit probably means that he'd had a couple of drinks, since the legal limit is so low.

Well, over here that means he had a BAC of .16, which is actually quite a number of drinks for the average male.

They probably shouldn't have gotten away clean, but I also don't think they should get Manslaughter, seeing as the force they used should not have been lethal.

 

[boarder]

Id go for murder not self defence

 

[Xanikk999]

How is it manslaughter? Sounds more like murder.

The article says they stormed a city bus and beat him to death.

That sounds like stone cold murder to me.

 

[Red Door]

How is it manslaughter? Sounds more like murder.

The article says they stormed a city bus and beat him to death.

That sounds like stone cold murder to me.

Shows you didn't read the article.