Should an accidental mistake be punishable?

i've read many stories on people dying from one punch to the head.

There was a fairly large story about 8 years ago in England where a women was punched once in the head by a bloke & she died. If you know anything of this story you'll know it was an unprovoked attack because of the way she dressed / looked.

I'm not directly on about random attacks, I'm more curious on your opinion on when an altercation basically ends up in an accidental death.
I read a story recently of 2 males who basically had a drunken punch up & one man got hit once in the head & died. This is the sort of situation I want to know about, should something like this really be punishable by jail time?

Discuss.

 

I feel like you should be held accountable for all of your actions regardless of the circumstances leading up to it.

 

The result shouldn't directly impact your punishment. It should be based off your intentions. If I shove someone to give myself distance because they're being aggressive and they trip and crack their head open which leads to complications and they die, clearly my intentions weren't watch me kill this guy with my mighty shove and thus my punishment should reflect that in my opinion.

 

How would the judges know if it was an accident or not? You could just make up that was an excuse in order to receive a more mild verdict. As the poster above me mentioned, you should be held accountable for your own actions. Surely it could be taken into the equation and in the overall decision making of your verdict, but that is already implemented. (See homicide/murder.)

 

This is a pretty stupid statement to make, everything about the circumstances leading up to it should be taken into account. For one, if you're defending yourself is completely different to being the instigator..


However, I heard to story about the 2 guys.. The one who died was instigating and provoking the attack, he was shoved away by the other guy and fell to hit his head on the pavement, which killed him.

In my opinion, if someone is close enough to the point where you have to push them away or you're defending yourself then accidental death is just as it is, accidental death and shouldn't serve any where near the same sentence as manslaughter.

 

thats why its called manslaughter and not murder, it also depends on what happened, shitty situations do occur

 

They have caused a death none the less if there is hard evidence there was no intention to cause harm then they shouldn't be in jail

 

This exactly..

Drunk drivers don't intend to harm anyone and they ALL deserve to be in jail. But that's why its called vehicular manslaughter and not murder.

Pretty good read: https://www.translegal.com/legal-english-lessons/homicide-murder-manslaughter

 

I used to work with a guy who had been charged with manslaughter in a strikingly similar story to the latter one you mentioned.

he was assaulted in a bar by a drunk and laid the drunk out, the drunk fell on a table on the nape of his neck and it broke. He was DOA.

Now even though my coworker had half the bar saying the other guy attacked him first he was still charged with manslaughter. Believe it was reduced to involuntary, regardless he still spent years in prison over it.

 

I went to school with a girl who had a real similar thing happen to her brother. He was at a bar and at last call tried to take a dudes cab so he got sucker punched. Fell and broke his neck and died. Not sure what happened to buddy who hit him. I'm assuming he was also charged with manslaughter.

 

Whatever you do, you should be held accountable for.

 

There's 2 different types of accidental.

1. Nothing of what you did was intentional or even your fault. Example: If someone runs a red light and you hit them. Nothing of that you could have prevented,

2. If your poor decisions led to the accident that happened. Example: You're drunk driving and you hit a pedestrian. You obviously didn't mean to hit them, but it would not have happened if you didn't make a poor decision and drink & drive.


1. I don't think there should be any punishment.
2. Yes, but it doesn't need to be as severe as if the act were to be intentional.

 

This is the right way of thinking.

 

I agree with this 100%. It all depends on the intentions.

However, it can go both ways. Say you're a drunk driver. Your intentions was to not crash/hurt/kill anybody, but in the event that you did, you should be held liable and punished to the fullest. I think it all depends on the situations whether an accidental mistake should be punishable.

 

I think that the only way people will learn from mistakes, accidental or not, is by receiving punishment. There isn't any way for someone to recognize what they did wrong and how to avoid a future mistake that could be similar if they do not receive some sort of reprimand.

 

people sometimes do realize that they have made mistake and some do take the punishment but i guess it depends again on said situation on how its looked it

 

You should be talked too, depending on how bad the "accident" was then the punishment should be determined then.

 

If I punched someone & they died. I'd definitely know I've done something wrong & the guilt would be horrible.

 

With some of the examples people are providing. If your over the legal age and you get into a bar fight, even if your "defending" yourself with punches


If the punches are hard enough to know somebody backwards and make them fall down/break their neck of course you should be held accountable.

 

I was arrested recently for a mistake that happened.

Thankfully we have acts in place in the UK for people like myself, and realise people fuck up from time to time and not everyone is a massive criminal cunt.

So no, accident's shouldn't be.