Legal News

Murder, Twins, and the Law

By rdasgupta

Are you one of those people who actually enjoyed the logic puzzles on the LSAT? If you are, then chances are that you are going to get a kick out of a particularly bizarre legal riddle that was recently crowned Slate’s “Explainer 2009 Question of the Year.”

Here it is: How would the law punish Siamese twins if one of the twins committed murder without the other being involved?

cc licensed flickr photo shared by brain_blogger

Not surprisingly, the caselaw on this fact pattern is relatively thin. Explainer unearthed only one case in which Siamese twins were ever prosecuted. In that case, one twin was arrested for “graz[ing] a caraboa cart” with his car. Both men were set free when the other twin “appealed the case on the grounds that as an innocent man, he could not be legally incarcerated.”

Go to Slate.com for Explainer’s thoughtful and witty analysis of the subject.

Full post as published by Fastcase Legal News on January 21, 2010 (boomark / email).