John W. wrote:

> Raj Feridun wrote:
> 
>>On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 16:29:46 +0900, Michael Cash
>><mikecash@buggerallspammers.com> wrote:
>>
>>>>He accidentally picked his son up and bodyslammed him, thus
>>>>murdering him.
>>>
>>>Yeah, I got that part. But the prime component of a murder charge
>>>is intent (殺意). No intent = no murder. So was he actually convicted
>>>on the charge of murder? Or was the use of the word "murder" in the
>>> article attributable to some dumbass reporter who doesn't know the
>>> fucking difference?
>>
>>
>>No, clearly his intent was to get the little runt to shut the hell up
>> and he achieved this goal quite nicely by murdering him.
>>
> 
> The thing that constantly 'gets me' about these stories isn't so much
> that it happens; child abuse has always been around and probably always
> will. And I'm also not sure if the US would have been more or less
> strict on the guy. But still... five years in prison for killing
> someone, your own child at that, is just ridiculous.

It doesn't seem at all unusual to me. Sadly enough, killing your own kid
is one of the easiest things to get away with. People are just so
inclined to believe that you had either gone completely unhinged, or
that it was just a tragic accident. This guy's mistake was technique. If
he had taken the kid and locked him in a closed car in a car-seat on a
hot day, or left him in a bathtub while he talked on the phone, or
dropped some of his favorite toys in the neighbor's pool, he would have
walked away with no punishment at all.

KWW