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Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor
How can one attempt to involuntarily do something? 
I'm in law school, and that doesn't make sense even to me! |
I'm in law school too. Did you all have to read the Welansky case? (Cocoanut Grove fire). The owner of a nightclub in the 50's was convicted of manslaughter (or negligent homicide or whatever they called it in that state) when the club burned down and all the fire exits were shut down, etc. A reasonable person would have known that the owner's behavior was committing these people to death. The owner obviously didn't WANT the people to be trapped in the club, in fact he himself visited the club almost every night (so he easily could have been killed). But that didn't matter.
It looks like the mens rea element is similar in Tennessee:
""We don't have any evidence nor do we allege that he intended to kill anyone," Schmutzer said of Martin. "But the proof for second-degree murder is 'knowing' ... the knowing of circumstances that could reasonably cause death."