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by shrubble 850 days ago
You mean the case where a 4 foot 9, 330 lb woman had a heart attack on the sidewalk, and not a single molecule of the driver's car ever touched Heather Heyer? While every single one of the people actually hit by the car, survived?

I admit I don't know what Dvorak said about it, however.

3 comments

> not a single molecule of the driver's car ever touched Heather Heyer?

I thought the medical examiner said otherwise: https://wset.com/news/local/medical-examiner-heather-heyer-d...

Weird detail to obsess about, since any death caused during the commission of a crime results in a felony murder charge anyway.
It depends on the state, Virginia definitely has felony murder. But the guy was just charged and convicted with plain old first degree murder. Intentionally driving your car into a crowd would seem to make that an open and shut case.

The felony murder statue would apply if say, he had some accomplice, who also committed a separate felony during the commission of the crime (like for instance, they had stolen the car), but it couldn't be proved that he was also complicit in driving the car into the crowd. But since the indirect cause of the death was the accomplice's aid in stealing the car, he could get charge with felony murder.

Not sure how the car touching Heyer is relevant. If the guy hit something else which then hit Heyer, his actions caused her death the same as if he had hit her himself.

Even if its something like, causing me to jump out of the way and hurt myself in the attempt, you bet your ass you can be held liable.

Nothing struck her and she didn't move and strike anything.
> Nothing struck her

He hit somebody, who was it? https://wina-am.sagacom.com/files/2018/12/WINA-car-in-eviden... (from https://wina.com/news/064460-james-fields-trial-every-pictur...)

The coroner's report is available: https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/co...

in which you might note the cause of death is "blunt force injury to the torso" and the details include "complete transaction of the thoracic artery".