You're kidding right? Let's say I'm a construction worker. I'm working on a building (30 stories up), rebuilding a chimney. I've got a pile of bricks up with me (presume it is a flat roof), and I'm setting them up. Now at some point, I pick one up and slip and the brick falls out of my hands and over the side.
At the same time, down in the yard, is the construction site receptionist who's pregnant. She's wearing a hard hat because she needed to talk to the foreman, but she's still in the yard. The brick comes down and hits her in the hat. If the brick kills her (which can happen, even with a hard hat, from that height), should I be convicted of a double murder?

There was no intent, it was purely an accident and despite all of the precaution taken, someone still died (happens all the time, that's why they're called accidents). Well? What should my punishment be? Oh, and who is going to pay the bills for my family while I'm in prison?

The law wouldn't convict me in this situation (as it stands now). The law would treat it as a horrible accident and nothing more. The construction company might be fined for some sort of improper safety measure, but basically, it isn't murder.

I agree with you, Guru, that murdering a pregnant woman (and her child) should be two murders, but you can't make a statement that if "some idiot accidentally dropped a brick off of a wall", that the "idiot" should do murder time for it.

-- Jeff

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"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." --Ronald Reagan