> Aside from only demonstrating possible earlier intent rather later > actions, the fraction of comments of "I'll kill you" that actually convert to > murders is vanishingly small. If I were a juror, this evidence would > tell me nothing about guilt or otherwise.
Sure it does — premeditation. Murder committed with premeditation and malice aforethought is punished much more severely (in most places) than a heat-of-the-moment killing. Knowing the offender’s state of mind is thus a perfectly legitimate avenue of inquiry, and requires investigation into background. >> If the dead guy is >> named McCoy and the living one is named Hatfield, >> that’s a strong hint the death is connected to a blood >> feud and the police need to be on the lookout for >> revenge killings. > > The reference is lost on me. Neither is exactly an uncommon name. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield%E2%80%93McCoy_feud Or just Google “hatfield mccoy”. > And of course it is a privacy invasion to go delving into records of > past events if the subject has not shared them with you and does not > generally broadcast them. When the penalty has been paid, the debt to > society is discharged and it is no longer anybody else's business. I understand you believe there is a right to be forgotten; I hope you will understand I consider that to be Pollyannic fantasy.
smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME cryptographic signature
_______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
