Mxsmanic wrote:

James Robinson writes:

Nothing emotional or irrational about it. Most states have laws that
allow people who commit crimes to be charged with murder, if a death
of any kind is a result of the crime. It doesn't matter if the
person intended to cause death, or even if they had a direct hand in
it.

How far does the "result of a crime" extend? It's a slippery slope.

These laws have existed for decades, and the jursiprudence is well
established.

As examples, a group of men committed a robbery in Florida, and fled
in a car. The police chased the car, which ran off the road and hit
a tree, resulting in the death of one of the occupants. All of the
rest of the group were charged with murder even though only one was
driving, and even though the person who died was one of their
accomplices.

But in this case the bad guys were not in a helicopter. The accident
occurred because of pilot error, and could have occurred under any
circumstances.

I simply gave an example of where people who didn't have the intention of
killing people and who didn't even directly cause the death were still
charged with murder.

The helicopter accident wouldn't have occurred if the chase hadn't been
on, since the helicopters wouldn't have been flying the way they were.

A number of states have laws that say a person is automatically at fault
for any accidents in a car if they are driving without a license, even if
they would not have been at fault if they did have a valid license. The
argument is that had then not been driving, then the accident would not
have happened. By extension, if the person hadn't been fleeing the law,
then the helicopter collision wouldn't have happened.

Thus, expect to see the person in Phoenix charged with murder, and
likely be convicted.

If the helicopters had collided while following a rescue operation,
which way would the emotional knee-jerk reaction turn in search of
scapegoats then?

Be careful what you wish for.

If they collided while following a rescue, it would have simply been
pilot error.

The law connecting murders to crimes is simply an additional deterrent to
doing things like fleeing the police.