re: Schlitterbahn co-owner to face murder charge in water slide death

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Wouldn't they have to prove he intentionally killed the kid for it to be murder?

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No.

Depraved indifference.

Might still be a reach though. I don’t know enough about the case but there would need to be evidence that the defendants knew there was a real and unreasonable risk that a child could die and chose to go ahead and play the odds.

Some companies actually do this. For example, a company that makes baby clothes could have knowledge that a popular outfit is somewhat flammable; holding a small flame close to it could make the outfit incindiery and go up in flames unusually quickly if held close for 3 seconds. They then run metrics that estimate that this could happen to 3 out of every 1000 babies wearing the outfit. Then they weigh the costs of recalling and redesigning the popular outfit against leaving it as is and covering up the info. They decide it’s more profitable to have 3 burned babies.

That’s a quick example but it happens.

I already have reasonable doubt just based on the charges as applied to these facts.

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Wait, I thought there weren't any injuries? Didn't the prosecutors make it all up

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Are you this dense????

There is no doubts the kid died.

There is no doubt the park is at fault (hence why civil settlements are completely appropriate).

Where there is doubt is... was the park criminally negligent?

You seem to have omitted the part where I said if we think the park people are, than so must the state permit people. Either they are both to blame, or neither are to blame.

The issue here is simple: is this an accident, or is this murder? And again, the prosecutor's job is to push cases. They have every incentive to show only one side of the story, only involve facts that support their case, etc.

It's not my job to show how or where they are lying... I'm not even saying they are lying. It's the job of the prosecutor to show beyond a reasonable doubt, and it's the job of the defense attorney to defend their client.

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Should the operators be given a good citizenship award instead?

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Should the state inspectors be given a quality award?

What's your story here, REG? You seem really upset that someone would dare challenge a prosecution.

The father was a champion for deregulation of safety/OSHA type stuff in the KS legislature if I recall correctly.

It's a harsh charge, probably too harsh, but these amusement park owners need to be held accountable for unsafe designs. Not something you let the "market" take care of or have patrons sign their life away upon entering the park.

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Might still be a reach though. I don’t know enough about the case but there would need to be evidence that the defendants knew there was a real and unreasonable risk that a child could die and chose to go ahead and play the odds

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The company redesigned the slide after initial design and use. Two years passed after the re-design. How many tens or hundreds of thousands of kids and adults used the slide with no issue. Then, one horrific tragedy happens.

That's what this is. This is a tragedy. That does not mean someone needs to go to jail over it.

The prosecutors will place the child’s mother on the stand. She will tell her story. There is no good way to cross examine it. The child’s father will take the stand and tell his story. There is no good way to cross examine it. Witnesses to the event will take the stand. You may be able to cross examine them with some degree of effectiveness. If I have evidence of the defendants knowledge and disregard of the dangers of this ride, I can destroy them with it.

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What's your story here, REG? You seem really upset that someone would dare challenge a prosecution.

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i'm normally very critical of prosecutors, especially in Orleans Parish. I know how indictments and Grand Jury proceedings work. In this case, the wording in the Kansas statute, along with damning, specific information in the indictment, means the charge may very well be appropriate here. But you're the one who was originally calling bullshite on there even being negligence, which is just outrageous. Go back and look at your own posts.

"I find it interesting that the leaders at Wells Fargo, after fraud and theft in the hundreds of millions of dollars from tons of people, won't face any charges, but these guys do.

The prosecutors better have damn high proof of fraud and negligence."

This is an interesting case..

Wouldn't this be similar to.. let's say a bridge collapsing? If a bridge collapses and someone or multiple people are killed, can the owner of the engineering company and the civil engineers who designed it be charged with murder?

I don't know if this situation addresses it, but what if there was a mistake on the contractor's end, that isn't as obvious?

Don't get me wrong, it is a tragedy that someone lost their life, but it's not like the owner's goal was to design a slide that would kill someone. Does Schlitterbahn guarantee it's customers their slides are 100% safe?

While a tragic accident, these are silly charges that won't stand up in court.

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I would expect an overhaul of ride safety in the state as a result of this case.

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Seems very appropriate. Of course, if the deceased child's father really did stand in the way of inspections and ride safety, I assume he has now changed his mind.