The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law
Chapter 13: I Had No Choice!
Necessity pg 19: A life for a life ain’t Necessity
But if Jack could have secured himself? If his death wasn’t a foregone conclusion?
Jack dangling from the rope, calling up to Jill
JACK
Hold on for a few more second, Jill, and then you can let go!
The heck is she doing?
Then it wasn’t a case of one dying instead of two.
Jill making her point
JILL
It was me living instead of you.
One life doesn’t outweigh another. Trading one harm for an equal harm doesn’t serve the greater good. It’s an equivalent evil, not the lesser evil.
The same scales from two pages back, Jack and Jill equal
I’ve enjoyed several hundred pages of your amazing book and enjoyed both the matters of law and artwork. I’ve also spotted a few of the easter eggs (Sam and Max Hit the Road; the 2 pi clock) hidden around.
I’d like to point out just one quibble with this particular example. If Jack was moments from saving himself, its not clear to me how Jill would nonetheless have died–after all tension would have been relieved, right? So her actions killed one in lieu of killing none, right? Apologies if I’ve misread.
This page is really wrong.
Jill is saying nonsense: “It was me living instead of you”
The situation is just as Frank Sheeran says: “It was you dying when you didn’t have to”, or MAYBE “I’d rather kill you then risk that your rescue attempt somehow pulls me down in those few seconds”.
Hmmm, surely the only way this can be prosecuted is if Jack survives. If this is the case then either Jill’s action saved his life…. or jill was completely wrong and prosecution is assured?
or are we saying there were other witnesses?