Fort Lauderdale Homicide Watch: Murder Can’t be Proven in Hazing Case

Fort Lauderdale homicide defense attorneys have been watching with interest the case out of Orlando, in which college students from Florida A&M University have been implicated in the death of a marching band student during a hazing ritual.

In order to prove homicide in Fort Lauderdale, or anywhere else in the state, prosecutors have to show that according to FL Statute 782.07, prosecutors have to prove that the person died as a result of your culpable negligence. That just means that while you may not have intended for the person to die, they were killed as a result of an action you took that you knew or should have known might have resulted in their death.

What’s interesting in this case is that even though the A&M drum major is said to have died as a result of beating injuries inflicted by his fellow band mates, who were aboard a charter bus at the time, no one is being charged with second-degree murder or manslaughter.

You would think that in a case like this, with multiple suspects and multiple witnesses, that proving guilt would be simple. Where prosecutors ran into trouble was that they could identify no singular injury by any person or persons that resulted in the young man’s death.

So instead, prosecutors have charged 13 individuals with hazing, as defined in Prosecutors opt for hazing charges in FAMU case, By MIKE SCHNEIDER, The Associated Press

More Blog Entries:
16-Year-Old West Palm Beach Juvenile Faces Attempted Murder Charges, Jan. 25, 2012, Fort Lauderdale Homicide Defense Lawyers Blog