One tragic decision in October of 2012 changed the lives of 5 young men forever. One of these young men, Danzele Johnson, lost his life that day; the other four have been convicted of his murder. These young men were committing a felony at the time of his death and they are being held accountable for his death under the felony murder rule. The charge carries lengthy sentences for all four men, between 45 and 55 years. In the words of Elkhart County Prosecutor Curtis Hill, “If you start a fire your responsible for all it burns, even if it burns you...and that's the basis of felony murder,"(Yuill). The reasoning behind charging the young men with felony murder is sound, if they had not been committing the felony, the death would not have occurred. The Elkhart four are now serving the severe sentences they deserve under the felony murder rule.
Under Indiana’s felony murder statute if a person dies during the commission of a felony, in this case burglary, Those involved in perpetrating that crime are responsible for that death (Harte). The young men in this case were attempting to burglarize a home they believed to be unoccupied at the time. They learned they were wrong when the homeowner came downstairs with a gun and fired several shots. One of these shots hit and killed Danzele. Curtis Hill points out, "they had a plan and the plan went wrong and as a result the death occurred. The fact that the death occurred to one of their compadres does not negate the law." (Yuill) The charge of felony murder applies because these boys entered a stranger’s home with the intent to burglarize it and Danzele was shot and killed during the commission of the felony. The other four young men are responsible for his murder just as if they had pulled...
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Your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, thank you for your attention today. [Slide #2] I would like to assert that separation is not the end of a relationship. Divorce is not the end of a relationship. Even an arrest is not the end of a relationship. Only death is the end of a relationship. In the case of defendant Donna Osborn, her insistence that ‘“one way or another I’ll be free,”’ as told in the testimony of her friend Jack Mathews and repeated in many others’, indicates that despite the lack of planning, the defendant had the full intent to kill her husband, Clinton Osborn.
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After contacting and interviewing all three suspects, we discovered the suspects killed the victim during a argument over a gun that had been used in an earlier robbery. Ballistics from a gun discovered in a inspection found one of the suspect suspects matched the weapon used in the shooting. The suspects were arrested and charged with second-degree murder. The case was closed and this concludes my summary of my
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