assassination

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/23/2011 12:41 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>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?

No.  He was not especially targeted.
Joel


>     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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