assassination

[Victor Steinbok]

The recent Arizona events may provide a less hypothetical example.
Loughner clearly went to the location to assassinate Rep. Giffords. He
also intended some random shooting to accompany that act in order to
gain easier access to Giffords. As a part of this random shooting he
killed a federal judge. Clearly this was an attempted assassination of
Giffords. Was the judge assassinated?

     VS-)

On 3/23/2011 12:18 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> McCawley is right, but prominence seems to me to be a necessary condition.
>
> Calculation (or presumed calculation) on the part of the (alleged) killer,
> also seems necessary, along with some political motivation.
>
> The Kennedy-Connolly ex. presents an unusual case, and unusual cases can
> throw semantics into a tizzy.
>
> If the assassin had a political motive my guess is that it would still be
> called "the Kennedy assassination" because Kennedy was extremely prominent,
> and the killing would have been the result of some sort of calculation, even
> if the gunman missed his intended target.
>
> JL

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