Brain death and murder charges - Writers Forum

Dreamingsinger · 04-20-2008, 02:33 PM

I am working a very short story in which the main character is brain dead,and is alive only because she is on life support. (It's complicated, lol) Now, the way she ended up braindead in the first place is because a man brutully beat her over the head with a tire iron. My question is at what piont would this man be charged with murder? Can a murder charge be layed on someone while his victen is still on life support, or would it have to wait until the machine is unplugged and her heart stops beating? She is kept alive on life support for many months, if that makes any differance legally.
Thanks for any advice about this one.

Sam Winchester · 04-20-2008, 02:36 PM

Unless the person is dead, he cannot be charged with murder. He can, however, be charged with attempted murder, or grievous bodily harm (in British law; don't know if this term is used in American law)

Hope this helps.

Sam.

Dreamingsinger · 04-20-2008, 02:47 PM

Thanks.
I was a bit unclear on what exactly is classed as dead. hence the trouble knowing if it's murder or not. I wasn't sure if legally dead could mean no brain function, or if it could only mean no heartbeat. So then I suppose it's likely under modern law the court could change an attempted murder charge, to a murder charge, if the braindead person does finally really die? LOL, I am not so good with complex legal stuff.

Sam Winchester · 04-20-2008, 03:11 PM

If the person finally succumbs during the coma, and the court can prove that his/her death was a direct result of the beating (which it most certainly would be) then, yes, the charge of attempted murder can be changed to murder in the first degree.

Sam.

lin · 04-21-2008, 01:13 AM

Interesting little quirk, all right.

Thing is, I have never heard of a brain dead person being kept "alive" on machines? What would be the point? As opposed to switching them of and having a field day for organ transplants?

Of course you could plot something like somebody keeping the body "alive" so the guy wouldn't be charged for capital. But it's pretty gimmicky. (Not that detectivfe mags don't love quirky gimmicks)

Mike C · 04-21-2008, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lin

Of course you could plot something like somebody keeping the body "alive" so the guy wouldn't be charged for capital. But it's pretty gimmicky. (Not that detectivfe mags don't love quirky gimmicks)

Like if the murderer was the doctor, huh? And he could only be linked to the murder once a post-mortem was carried out? Quirky!

But no, once brain death happens, the machines go off. A girl I knew was in a car wreck (never get in a car with a drunk driver - there were 5 in the car, 3 died, plus the two in the oncoming car they collided with head on - extra quirk? The driver of the car he hit was his old school-teacher) and she was declared brain dead. They kept her hooked to the machines for 2 days while they carried out tests and to enable her parents to get there from the opposite end of the country, then switched her off.

Dreamingsinger · 04-21-2008, 02:24 PM

Well the idea in this story is that a young woman has been briandead for four months, but her family is refusign to agree to have everything turned off. Some of them still won't give up hope that she will wake up one day, and they refuse to kill her. The few relatives who refuse to sign the papers to do that, are causing trouble for the rest of the family... the ones who say, let her go, she is never coming back. I have heard of a couple of cases where something like this happens.