"It just went off by accident"

The Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a clumsy bank robber whose gun was discharged, supposedly by accident , during the commission of the crime.

“A gun went off accidentally during the attempted robbery when Dean tried to switch the weapon from one hand to the other.”

{…}

“Chief Justice John Roberts, who called it "the case of the bungling bank robber" in his bench statement, said the law "does not require that the discharge be done knowingly or intentionally."”

The ruling made clear the consequences for going into a crime armed with a weapon making the claim, “It just went off by accident” irrelevant. The criminal intent to do harm becomes automatic the moment the weapon is brought to the crime.

This is no different than the folks who go drinking at the bar, drive under the influence and then “accidentally” have a wreck that kills somebody. The accident, if you can call it that, happened the minute the drunk driver got behind the wheel and it’s only luck that these folks manage to get home without killing or injuring someone else.

“Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer dissented, saying Congress intended the automatic sentence to only apply to intentional discharges of weapons.”

Here is the reason for separation of powers in our nation, the legislators write the laws and judges are supposed to rule based on what is written in those laws. Activist judges can’t seem to discipline themselves and are constantly attempting to insert their own opinions rather than work with the laws which are in place.

Apparently Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer don’t understand or have decided to ignore the centuries old idea that Justice is Blind and not swayed by feelings or other outside influences. (Photo courtesy of Statues.com)