Criminal Law Discussion (Case Study Sample)

Criminal Law Discussion Name Institution Criminal Law Discussion Marion Yoder, an Amish man, aged 28 years, was found guilty of a misdemeanor count of negligent homicide when a shot fired into the air from his 50-caliber muzzle-loading rifle killed Rachel Yoder on the night of December 15, 2011. Rachel was driving home on a horse-drawn buggy on a fateful night, two kilometers away from where the shot was fired. She had been attending a Christmas party Southwest of Canton (Spectator, 2011). Even though the shot was not intentional, as Marion was clearing a round out of his rifle after a hunting trip when the shot fired accidentally, he pled guilty and was sentenced for 30 days in jail, and a subsequent probation sentence of 3 years, failure to which, he would have to serve the full sentence of 180 days in prison for his misdemeanor count of negligent misdemeanor. Given an opportunity to judge this case, I would impose a stiffer punishment on the offender, noting that even if the crime was not intentional, the outcome was severe, and he violated the rules of common law (Crimesider Staff, 2012). In the first place, the wild shot fired claimed the life of an innocent young girl aged 15 years. Secondly, Marion was well aware of the universal laws of physics, whereby anything that goes up has to come down, eventually, and that may have catastrophic consequences, like the case of his shot, as it killed an innocent girl. Therefore, I would have charged him with manslaughter, as his victim succumbed to the wounds caused by the fired shot. As a result, he would have to serve a longer sentence in prison of about ten years. References Crimesider Staff. (2012). Amish man accidentally killed a girl in horse-drawn-buggy with a stray gunshot, will serve 30 days in jail. CBS News, September 12, 2012. Retrieved from  HYPERLINK "https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amish-man-accidentally-killed-girl-in-horse-drawn-buggy-with-stray-gunshot-wil...