Murder is an odd thing. If you kill someone ... rather, if you take the life of a person who willingly offers their life to you, is it still murder, given the legal definition being the unlawful killing of a human being with malice either express or implied. Manslaughter is unjustified and inexcusable and intentional WITHOUT deliberation.
What if you picked up a paper, and found someone in the Wanted Ads who had an ad asking to be killed.
It is certainly premeditated - you read the paper, you called the number, you met the person, and (assuming) agreed to accept their offer - premeditated. That rules out manslaughter - most especially given that no defense is involved. Your intended does not intend to defend nor attack.
If not murder and manslaughter, how far down the list of crimes do we go to find something we can convict the guy of?
What if Bob picks up the paper and looks through the ads under cannibals and finds an ad he may be interested in. Tom put an ad in the paper in the cannibal section - Tom wanted to be eaten, and he was looking for anyone interested in following through and eating him.
Is it murder if Bob meets Tom, Tom and Bob get along and both agree to the deal, Tom informs Bob he must hit him (Tom) with a hammer on the side of the head and quickly follow through to ensure that the meat is tasty and not ... is it manslaughter? Maybe we get the guy on cannibalism. For how long? And then he is out again looking for another meal. What if he claims in defense that it is his dietary choice to eat people and if they want him to eat them, whats the problem.
Well, in Germany they have to deal with this (or rather, had to 7 or so years ago). Who knows, he may be out, looking for another meal!!
17 July, 2003
BBC
German 'cannibal' charged with murder
The crime was allegedly carried out with the victim's consent
A German man who confessed to killing and eating a man he met through a website for cannibals has been charged with murder, prosecutors have said.
The 41-year-old suspect, identified as Armin M, is alleged to have killed the 43-year-old victim in March 2001 in the town of Rotenburg in central Germany, after meeting him through the site.
He then carved up and froze portions of the man's flesh, later eating some of it, prosecutors allege.
The crime was apparently carried out with the victim's full consent, however state prosecutor Hans-Manfred Jung told French news agency AFP that the victim's supposed "death wish" did not change the fact that the killer had wanted to commit murder.
The suspect's arrest in December last year caused a sensation in Germany, as the country's tabloids competed to report the most grisly details of the case.
'Sexual enjoyment'
The suspect and victim met in early 2001, after Armin M is said to have posted a personal ad on several websites and in chatrooms asking for "young, well-built men aged 18 to 30 to slaughter", the German daily newspaper Bild reported at the time of his arrest.
The victim was a 43-year-old Berlin computer technician who had sold his car, written a will and taken the day off work to sort out what he called a "personal" matter.
He then went to Armin M's home, where the pair reportedly agreed to cut off his penis.
The victim was then allegedly stabbed to death - still apparently with his approval - and cut into pieces.
The whole incident was filmed on videotape, and prosecutors say that the whole crime was committed for the purpose of sexual enjoyment.
Authorities were tipped off by internet surfers who found the requests on various sites.
Mr Jung said there was no evidence that Armin M had been involved in further cases, however several people with whom he had been in contact on the internet are still under investigation.
A date for the trial has yet to be set.
germany
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