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At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS president,
Dr. Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal complications of
a bizarre death.
On March 23, 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and
concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. The decedent had
jumped from the top of a ten story building intending to commit suicide.
He left a note to that effect indicating his despondency. As he fell past
the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through
a window, which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been
installed just below at the eighth 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, Dr. Mills continued, "a person
who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the
mechanism might not be what he intended" is still defined as committing
suicide.
That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death nine stories below at
street level, but that his suicide attempt 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.
The room on the ninth floor from whence 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 bullets went
through the window striking Mr. Opus. When one intends to kill subject A,
but kills subject B in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject
B. When confronted with the murder charge, the old man and his wife were
both adamant. They both said they thought the shotgun was unloaded.
The old man said it was his long standing habit to threaten his wife with
the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore the
killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident, that is, the gun had been
accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's
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.
The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of
Ronald Opus. Now comes the bizarre 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 ninth story window. The son had actually
murdered himself so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide. Very
tidy of him.
What is the shortest chapter in the Bible? Psalms 117. ...
What is the longest chapter in the Bible? Psalms 119. ...
Which chapter is the center of the Bible? Psalms 118. ...
There are 594 chapters before Psalms 118. There are 594 chapters after Psalms 118. ...
Add these numbers up and you get 1188. Which is the center verse in the Bible. Psalms 118:8:
It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.
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