Coroner Is Said to Rule James Brady’s Death a Homicide, 33 Years After a Shooting

Hinkley was found not guilty by reason of insanity, which caused a to-do, and legislative reform on insanity defenses. But, Hinkley couldn't be retried with new insanity rules. A homicide ruling allows a prosecutor the option to get a real conviction on him because there are new charges now. If Brady had died 20 years ago, they'd probably have done it. Now, it seems like a waste of time and money, but it's no large burden to do an autopsy and rule a homicide just to open the option. If someone wastes government resources on another trial, it'll be some prosecutor, not the medical examiner.

 

Question is this: Was Brady's cause of death directly linked to the bullet that entered his brain?

Sounds like the corner is saying that it is in fact is.

 

Reagan died of Alzheimer's. This is certainly dubious but I'd be curious of their thoughts as to how his brain function was affected by the bullet.

 

How can anyone answering this poll say yes or no?

I'm assuming that everyone who answered "no" is arguing that the bullet was not the but-for cause of his death.

Although I don't know the science here I don't see why it would be unjust to convict someone of murder when they were once charged with attempted murder and the injury sustained was the cause of their death however far down the line.

I actually have a [distant] relative who was convicted of murder for someone dying months after the event. Essentially--the victim fell out of a hospital bed and died, although the link between the event and the death was tenuous.

Basically any attempt at causing someone's death that ends in death, however tenuous, will be charged by the state. It's the state's way of discouraging people from attempting murder in the first place.

 

Since you was already tried for the attempted murder and found not guilty by reason of insanity, it would seem to be essentially double jeopardy to try him again just because the victim died. His level of insanity isn't changed by the fact that Brady died. But, that may be what the prosecutor or courts would think too and no charges will be coming anyway, which makes this argument premature. But, yeah I think it'd be unfair.

 

What would you have put if you were the medical examiner? There are five medical-legally causes of death: accidental, homicide, suicide, natural or undetermined.

Out of those five, homicide fits the most. He's not charging the guy with murder, he's just indicating that a bullet to the brain 33 years ago is what utlimately led to his demise.

According to this story, this is not unprecedented.