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Monday, August 11, 2008
Law - Kentucky prosecutor charges husband with murder after wife kills herself; likened to Indiana case
From a long story today by Jason Riley in the Louisville Courier Journal:
During a drunken argument with her husband on Sept. 10, Katherine Mae Simpson put a loaded handgun to her head and pulled the trigger.Nearly a year after Simpson's death was ruled a suicide, husband James Simpson -- who called 911 and reported the shooting -- has been charged with murder.
Police and prosecutors don't argue that Katherine Simpson shot herself, but, in a legal rarity, they claim James Simpson is responsible for her death because he gave his "highly intoxicated and suicidal" wife a loaded gun, according to court records.
Ryan Vantrease, one of James Simpson's attorneys, said a tragic situation -- the death of a 35-year-old wife and mother -- is wrongly being compounded by the decision to bring the murder charge.
"There's no crime that's been committed here," Vantrease said. "When she pulled that trigger, that was a decision that she made."
Vantrease said he's been unable to find a similar case in Kentucky. Two national criminal justice experts and several local attorneys also had never heard of one.
First Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Harry Rothgerber acknowledged the case is unusual, but said he believes charging James Simpson is appropriate because state law allows a murder charge when someone acts recklessly and with extreme indifference to human life.
He likened it to cases where someone is charged with murder after playing Russian roulette, where someone hands a person a gun they know has a bullet in it. An Indiana man was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1991 after being convicted of manslaughter in the death of his wife during such a game.
"We intend to prove our case at trial," said Rothgerber, who declined to discuss specifics.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 11, 2008 09:02 AM
Posted to General Law Related