A mere legality

[Laurence Horn]

I can imagine a crafty defense lawyer crafting a defense for a client indicted for attempted suicide (if any ever is) on the grounds that in no other case is the crime of "attempted Xing" punished more severely than the corresponding crime of "Xing"; any penalty for attempted murder that was more stringent that for murder in the same jurisdiction would be deemed an instance of cruel and unusual punishment, or attempted armed robbery, etc. etc., so why should that be countenanced in the case of (attempted) suicide?  Of course from the Almighty's perspective, successful suicide *is* punished more severely than merely attempted suicide, and there's no parole.  But--at least until the inauguration of President Santorum--not all sins are crimes.

LH

On Feb 20, 2012, at 3:00 PM, Ronald Butters wrote:

> Keeping in mind that Hamlet tells us that the Almighty has fixed His command against self-slaughter, it seems more likely that the felony is attempted suicide, not suicide.
>
> Not sure what the Supreme Court would say about or right to our own bodies.
>
> On Feb 20, 2012, at 10:11 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
>> It may be a felony, but that doesn't means it's easy to prosecute.  I'm sure murder-suicide is a capital felony everywhere, but the same point applies.
>>
>> LH
>>
>> On Feb 20, 2012, at 9:59 AM, Charles C Doyle wrote:
>>
>>> Isn't suicide a felony in one or more states (real or imaginary)?
>>>
>>> Charlie
>>>
>>> ________________________________________
>>> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
>>> Sent: Monday, February 20, 2012 8:35 AM
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Where does it say you can't arrest a dead guy?
>>>
>>> JL
>>>
>>> On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 9:02 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>>> Subject:      Re: A mere legality
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 8:13 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>>>> Maybe, but that way he'd have avoided arrest.
>>>>
>>>> An excellent point!
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> -Wilson
>>>
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