Who's the convict and who's the victim?

At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic


Science, AAFS President Dr Don Harper Mills astounded

his audience with the legal complications of a bizarre


death.


Here is the Case:


On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body


of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a


shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus had jumped from


the top of a ten-story building intending to commit


suicide. He left a note to the effect indicating his


despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor his life


was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a


window, which killed him instantly.


Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a


safety net had been installed just below the eighth


floor level to protect some building workers and that


Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his


suicide the way he had planned.


"Ordinarily," Dr Mi! lls continued, "A person, who sets


out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even


though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is


still defined as committing suicide." That Mr. Opus


was shot on the way to certain death, but probably


would not have been successful because of the safety


net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a


homicide on his hands.


In the room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun


blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his


wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was


threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset


that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed


his wife and the pellets went through the window


striking Mr. Opus. When one intends to kill subject


"A" but kills subject "B" in the attempt, one is


guilty of the murder of subject "B".


When confronted with the murder charge the old man and


his wife were both adamant and both said that they


thought the shotgun was unloaded. The old man said it


was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with


the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder


her.


Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an


accident; that is, if the gun had been accidentally


loaded. The continuing investigation turned up a


witness who saw the old couple's son loading the


shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident.


It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's


financial support and the son, knowing the propensity


of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded


the gun with the expectation that his father would


shoot his mother.Since the loader of the gun was


aware of this, he was guilty of the murder even though


he didn't actually pull the trigger. The case now


becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the


death of Ronald Opus.


Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation


revealed hat the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had


become increasingly despondent over the failure of his


attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him


to jump off the ten-story building on March 23rd, only


to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the


ninth story window. The son had actually Murdered


himself, so the medical examiner closed the case as a


suicide.


A true story from Associated Press,


(Reported by Kurt Westervelt)