Guilty or not Guilty?

[ELVIS68]

Male1 at a party hears that his friend, Male 2 is having some "beef" with some of the other partygoers and a row kicks off at the end of the road.

Male 1 goes to the kitchen and picks up two 8" kitchen knives and heads off to the row, he hands one of the knives to Male 2 who ends up stabbing someone in the groin area whilst Male 1 stabs another person in the stomach so severley that the victims bowel is visible.

Neither Male 1 or 2 deny handling the knives and claim both stabbings were accidental.

Bearing in mind there were 3 witnesses who saw the stabbings take place and another 7 people who saw Male 1 walking down the road with 2 knives, would you say they intended to cause serious bodily harm or would you side with the accidental claim?

[Mamyalynne]

Yes there was intent in my opinion or why not take the rolling pin to s tun them?

[lindapinda]

Accidental claim???...I think not,but...with courts today,they will probably end up claiming some sort of damages for the fact they have been put through this dreadful trauma...you cant beat the wonderful judicial system,where morality or common sense play no part;-)

[waterboatman]

They should both do life.

[rowanwitch]

blades over 4" offensive weapon if you are not cooking with


Carrying the knife even as a threat surely implies you might use it... Def intent with the guy who fetched them not sure about the idiot he handed on to, if he was all fired up there might not be an intent component.

I think man one deserves a bigger sentence but they will both probably get a few weeks cleaning graffiti the way things are at present

[Ankou]

if an old biddy with her zimmer frame is tottering across the road 200 yards in front of me and i speed up and run her down.

is it an accident ?

[sara3]

one made an effort to find weapons, the other readily accepted.

both absolutely guilty.

[David Black]

Do them both with conspriacy to murder and lesser charge GBH.

Basically hang them.

[jno]

so what do the witnesses say? Did the stabbings look accidental or not?

[ummmm]

I'd say it was intentional..

[Ankou]

i suppose the question should be, "what was the intent".

was it to threaten, commit harm, or to commit murder?

and if so, what is elvis asking they are guilty of.

[joeluke]

Am struggling to understand why the word 'accidental' was used here

[jackthehat]

Has this case been decided, or are you asking us to make your mind up for you ?

IMO the intent is proven by 'distance'. They had every step of their journey from the kitchen to the site of the confrontation to change their mind/abandon the knives; they didn't because they *intended* to cause harm when they arrived.

[McMouse]

If this is the whole story it's a no brainer. Guilty.

[ELVIS68]

Thanks for the replies apart from tonyted and his usual lack of input

jack, the case has finished, I was just curious as to what others felt as 3 of the jury couldn`t agree with the rest of us and say they intended to do serious harm.

They agree that both defendants used the knives but not to cause seroius harm

The mind boggles!