Causation In Criminal Cases

Causation is used in criminal cases in order to determine what the accused should be charged with or convicted of. The basic rule of causation is that a person is responsible for the natural and probable consequences of their actions. Causation helps the trial jury understand the difference between crimes like first degree murder, and involuntary manslaughter. Because, while the essence of both of those crimes is the same, a person is being accused of causing the death of another person, the person’s role in the death of the victim are different, therefore they have varying degrees of responsibility. This is important when it comes to sentencing, while a person can be executed in Kentucky for first degree murder, a person might only receive

Any reasonable person would expect someone to die after being shot twice in the head. Peckham did knowingly and purposefully point a gun at the victim’s head and pull the trigger, not once, but twice. The accused’s intentions could not have been clearer. A reasonable person would also expect the victim to be taken to a hospital if they were not pronounced dead at the scene, as in this case. Upon arrival at the hospital it was determined that the victim had suffered irreversible brain damage and loss of brain function. He was no longer able to breathe on his own, he was unresponsive to stimuli, and his electroencephalogram showed a flat line, indicating no brain activity. Had it not been for the machines keeping him breathing his heart would have stopped soon after arriving at the hospital. He was not able to sustain life on his own, and would have never recovered. A reasonable person would expect a doctor to eventually stop treatment on a patient who was not going to recover, such as the victim in thus case. So, given these facts his family decided to allow the doctors to remove the artificial life support. Immediately following this decision the victim did die. Now the question is who is directly responsible for the death of the victim, the accused is. Because the accused did shoot the victim in the head, and the victim was sent to the hospital where he died as a direct result of his injuries, the accused is the direct cause of the victim’s death and should be held