Felony Murder Liability for Homicides by Police: Too Unfair and Too Much to Bear

On November 23, 2020, a fifteen-year-old boy was gunned down by five Oklahoma City police officers, after he exited a convenience store and dropped the gun that he and a sixteen-year-old partner had earlier used to rob the store’s owner. Initially, the boy’s non-present partner was charged with first-degree (felony) murder for this killing. But after months of efforts by the boy’s mother and local activists, the district attorney also charged five officers with first-degree manslaughter for this same killing. This case raises the question of whether Oklahoma—or any American state—can convict a defendant of felony murder based upon a killing that was a criminal homicide by a police officer. More broadly, it raises the question of whether a felony “participant” can be convicted of felony murder based upon a killing by a “nonparticipant,” who killed while resisting the underlying felony. Killings by “nonparticipants” include killings by responding police officers, as well as by bystanders and victims of the original felony. This is the first Article to address felony murder liability for homicides by nonparticipants. This Article presents a fifty-state survey of American law that determines which states maintain a traditional approach to felony murder (not requiring any culpable mens rea regarding a killing arising from a covered felony), which states are “agency states” (that limit felony murder to killings by participants), which are “proximate cause states” (that allow felony murder convictions for killings by nonparticipants), and which proximate cause states would potentially allow felony murder liability for a criminal homicide by a police officer, bystander, or victim. This Article maintains that even states that have adopted a broad proximate cause approach to felony murder should prevent such liability for killings by nonparticipants that are chargeable homicides and proposes some statutory and doctrinal approaches for doing so in a principled way

Determination of mechanical properties of historical paper based on NIR spectroscopy and chemometrics - a new instrument

Due to sampling restrictions in the analysis of cultural heritage materials, non-destructive approaches are intensively sought for. While NIR spectrometry has rarely been used for this purpose due to the complexity of the spectra, chemometric methods can be used to extract the necessary information. For the purpose of determination of mechanical properties of historical paper, partial least squares approach was used and it is shown that tensile strength, and tensile strength after folding, can be estimated based on NIR spectra. As the mechanical properties of paper-based objects define their accessibility, a new dispersive portable instrument was built, which will enable us to rapidly survey the condition of library and archival collections

Optical Coherence Tomography for Examination of Parchment Degradation

A novel application of Optical Coherence Tomography utilizing infrared light of 830 nm central wavelength for non invasive examination of the structure of parchment, some covered with iron gall ink, is presented. It is shown that both the parchment and the ink applied are sufficiently transparent to light of this wavelength. In the study, Spectral OCT (SOCT) as well as Polarisation Sensitive OCT (PS-OCT) techniques were used to obtain cross-sectional images of samples of parchment based on scattering properties. The second technique was additionally employed to recover the birefringence properties and the optical axis orientations of the sample. It was shown that freshly produced parchment exhibits a degree of birefringence. However, this property declines with ageing, and samples of old parchment completely depolarise the incident light

A Middle Jurassic Radiolarite-Clastic Succession from the Medvednica Mt. (NW Croatia

On the NW part of Medvednica Mt. radiolarites with carbonate olistoliths, shales and siltites, matrix-supported conglomerates and basic volcanic rocks were investigated. This facies association is informally named the Poljanica unit. Major element geochemical data indicate deposition of radiolarites in the vicinity of the middle oceanic ridge, while sedimentological data indicate deposition in an area closer to the continent. Shales and siltites, as well as matrix-supported conglomerates, were deposited in short periods characterised by increased input of terrigenous material. Matrix-supported polymict conglomerates are composed of silicified shales, lithic graywackes, cherts and metabasalts, and were deposited by debris flow mechanisms as a consequence of synsedimentary tectonic activity. Carbonate olistoliths are composed of biomicrosparite, and jointly with deformed radiolarian cherts compose an olistostrome. Basic volcanic rocks represent high-Ti tholeiitic basalts formed in the MORB realm. Micropalaeontological investigation of radiolarite samples proved the Middle Jurassic (latest Bajocian - early Bathonian to late Bathonian - early Callovian) age of the Poljanica unit. Additionally, a new radiolarian species Theocapsomma medvednicensis n.sp. has been described. Conodont analyses from carbonate olistoliths in radiolarites proved their Triassic age. The investigated radiolarite-clastic succession is the result of subduction processes. Further continuation of this process caused incorporation of these deposits into the accretionary prism, where they were brought in direct contact with Triassic volcanic rocks and radiolarites (in the form of a tectonic mélange). Based on the lithological similarities with the Middle Jurassic turbidite-olistostrome successions in the Western Carpathians and Northern Calcareous Alps, the study area is considered to be part of the Meliata-Hallstatt Ocean

Valvasoria carniolica n.gen. n.sp., a Triassic Worm from Slovenia

Carnian limestones exposed from Mojstrana to Triglav (the highest Slovenian mountain), are very important biostratigraphically, and especially for the palaeogeographic interpretation of the Upper Triassic. Outcrops can be traced in the Vrata Valley extending in a narrow belt several kilometres in a north-eastward - eastward direction. A very quiet depositional environment, with reducing conditions at the sea floor, permitted the preservation of soft-bodied animals. Valvasoria carniolica is a new genus and species. It has a cylindrical body with an expanded anteriormost portion. The systematic position of Valvasoria is unknown, however it might be related to Nematoda or Sipunculida

Triassic Pelagic Limestones in Pillow Lavas in the Oresje Quarry near Gornja Bistra, Medvednica Mt. (Northwest Croatia)

Investigated outcrops in the Oresje quarry near Gornja Bistra on Medvednica Mt. contain pillow lavas and massive metabasalts with fragments of carbonate rocks between them. The effusive rocks were determined as high-Ti tholeiitic metabasalts, corresponding to those which originated in the MOR area, which today represent obducted, allochthonous parts of Triassic oceanic crust. Carbonate rock fragments are characterised by micrite, biomicrosparite, fossiliferous microsparite, biosparite and sparite types, all of which are more or less recrystallised. From their appearance between pillows, together with hyaloclasts they were determined as peperites. Micropalaeontological analysis of conodonts from the limestone samples indicated a Middle Triassic age, which is also the age of the effusive rocks discovered in the quarry

Measurement of polarization-transfer to bound protons in carbon and its virtuality dependence

We measured the ratio $P_{x}/P_{z}$ of the transverse to longitudinal components of polarization transferred from electrons to bound protons in $^{12}\mathrm{C}$ by the $^{12}\mathrm{C}(\vec{e},e'\vec{p})$ process at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI). We observed consistent deviations from unity of this ratio normalized to the free-proton ratio, $(P_{x}/P_{z})_{^{12}\mathrm{C}}/(P_{x}/P_{z})_{^{1}\mathrm{H}}$, for both $s$- and $p$-shell knocked out protons, even though they are embedded in averaged local densities that differ by about a factor of two. The dependence of the double ratio on proton virtuality is similar to the one for knocked out protons from $^{2}\mathrm{H}$ and $^{4}\mathrm{He}$, suggesting a universal behavior. It further implies no dependence on average local nuclear density

All Stable Characteristic Classes of Homological Vector Fields

An odd vector field $Q$ on a supermanifold $M$ is called homological, if $Q^2=0$. The operator of Lie derivative $L_Q$ makes the algebra of smooth tensor fields on $M$ into a differential tensor algebra. In this paper, we give a complete classification of certain invariants of homological vector fields called characteristic classes. These take values in the cohomology of the operator $L_Q$ and are represented by $Q$-invariant tensors made up of the homological vector field and a symmetric connection on $M$ by means of tensor operations.Comment: 17 pages, references and comments adde