[Puffer Fish]

Tampa woman is facing a murder charge after a person she tried to lure into a robbery through a dating app shot and killed her brother in self defense, Hillsborough County Sheriff's officials said.
Tat'yana Mekeva Gaston, 23, was arrested Friday and charged with second-degree murder in connection with the May 31 shooting, according to court documents. Gaston was released from the Hillsborough County jail the day of her arrest after she posted $15,000 bail, records show.
Police say Gaston matched with a person on the dating app BLK posing as a 22-year-old woman named "Jada." She asked the person, who is not named in court records, to meet her at Kain Palms Apartments, where her brother, Jermon Kennard, 18, was waiting nearby to rob the person, the records state.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/202 ... -homicide/
Tampa dating app meetup ends in robbery attempt and homicide, Mary Claire Molly, June 8, 2022

I disagree with the use of the felony murder legal doctrine in cases like this.

Accomplices should not be charged for criminal deaths. The criminal who died knew what they were getting into, and chose to take that risk.

This seems like just looking for excuses for more punishment.

I don't even think these felony murder laws were originally meant to apply in these situations, but overtime prosecutors applied them to these situations and eventually it just became an accepted part of the law. People in these areas were very "tough on crime" and didn't care what happened to criminals, any excuse to put them in prison as long as possible.

I think part of the issue too is they are just looking for someone to give punishment too, someone to blame, and they can't punish a criminal who is dead, so they just want to punish the surviving criminals more instead. It's an innate human psychological response.

In my view this doesn't make sense and isn't fair.

[BlutoSays]

Is murder a big deal these days? I mean, we have the death penalty in many states, but many states have abolished it. If something is particulary heinous, games are played based on the backlash of the public, such as charging a person federally to get them eligible for death penalty. So what is that? Buyers remorse after the fact? So a Governor of a state puts their own beliefs above a state legislature and justice is circumvented?

Think about this also, some have turned the justice system into a legal system for the purposes of lawfare and gamesmanship. So, it's very hard to convict, the outcome usually seems to be in favor of the criminal and the victims (or their families) walk away very pissed off. Now, we're on to the next big thing! Letting killers go rather than inconveniencing them with jail after a capital crime. So, that's observed by society and standards of behavior slip. That can't go on forever.

Final thought. Where we do have the death penalty, games are played by lawyers and bureaucrats to stop justice or delay it as long as possible IF the perpetrator is one in a zillion criminals who actually get the death penalty. So, when the criminal is finally executed after all appeals have been exhausted (20 or 30 years later), no one can remember why the convicted criminal is even being executed. Half of the community and family have moved away or died, forgotten, and there's no link between crime and punishment. Do you think that's by accident? It sure as F isn't by accident.

I can hear leftists everywhere saying "well, we've progressed". Really? Have we?

I'll go back to the my original question. Is murder a big deal these days?

[pugsville]

Is murder a big deal these days? I mean, we have the death penalty in many states, but many states have abolished it. If something is particulary heinous, games are played based on the backlash of the public, such as charging a person federally to get them eligible for death penalty. So what is that? Buyers remorse after the fact? So a Governor of a state puts their own beliefs above a state legislature and justice is circumvented?

Think about this also, some have turned the justice system into a legal system for the purposes of lawfare and gamesmanship. So, it's very hard to convict, the outcome usually seems to be in favor of the criminal and the victims (or their families) walk away very pissed off. Now, we're on to the next big thing! Letting killers go rather than inconveniencing them with jail after a capital crime. So, that's observed by society and standards of behavior slip. That can't go on forever.

Final thought. Where we do have the death penalty, games are played by lawyers and bureaucrats to stop justice or delay it as long as possible IF the perpetrator is one in a zillion criminals who actually get the death penalty. So, when the criminal is finally executed after all appeals have been exhausted (20 or 30 years later), no one can remember why the convicted criminal is even being executed. Half of the community and family have moved away or died, forgotten, and there's no link between crime and punishment. Do you think that's by accident? It sure as F isn't by accident.

I can hear leftists everywhere saying "well, we've progressed". Really? Have we?

I'll go back to the my original question. Is murder a big deal these days?

The State should not be allowed to judicially kill people. I simply donlt trust the state with that power. They cannot be trusted with it.


Bluto why do you want bureaucrats with the power to kill?

[Puffer Fish]

I'll go back to the my original question. Is murder a big deal these days?

Maybe you missed the point. The woman being charged with murder did not actually kill anyone.