THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF A BIZARRE DEATH...a true life story.

On March 23rd 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shot gun wound on the head. Opus has jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency. As he fell past the 8^th floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window which killed him instantly.

Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been installed just below the 8^th floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned.

Ordinarily, “a person, who set out to commit suicide and ultimately succeed, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide”. That Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.

In the room on the 8^th floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Opus. When one intends to kill subject A but kill subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject B.

When confronted with the murder, the old man and his wife were both adamant and both said that they thought the shotgun was unloaded.  The old man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her.

Therefore, the killing of Opus appeared to be an accident, i.e. if the gun had been accidentally loaded. The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couples’ son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident.

It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son’s financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother.

Since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the murder even though he didn’t actually pull the trigger. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.

Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother’s murder. This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the 8^th story window. The son had actually murdered himself, so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.

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THE BALANCE SHEET OF LIFE

Your birth is your ..................................................................OPENING STOCK

What comes in is your .......................................................... DEBIT

What goes out is you..............................................................CREDIT

Your ideas are your...............................................................ASSETS

Your views are your..............................................................LIABILITIES

Your happiness is your ..........................................................PROFIT

Your sorrow is your...............................................................LOSS

Your soul is your....................................................................GOODWILL

Your heart is your .................................................................FIXED ASSET

Your duties is your.................................................................OUTSTANDING EXPENSES

Your friendship is your............................................................HIDDEN ADJUSTMENT

Your character is your............................................................CAPITAL

Your knowledge is your...........................................................INVESTMENTS

Your patience is your..............................................................INTEREST

Your mind is your...................................................................BANK BALANCE

Your bad thinking should always be..........................................DEPRECIATED

Your behavior is your..............................................................JOURNAL ENTRY

Your girlfriend is your.............................................................JOINT VENTURE

Your wife is your....................................................................PARTNER

Your child is your....................................................................ADMISSION OF PARTNER

Your death is your...................................................................CLOSING STOCK