Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Storm Raven" data-source="post: 23194" data-attributes="member: 307">When the police try to arrest you, and you fight them off, do you get away with it because "you were merely defending yourself"? No. You get slapped with a charge of resisting arrest. Helping out the people you injured later does not excuse your crime.Okay, so it doesn't say he specifically ran into the fracas, but he participated on the side of the felons. Fighting with the watchmen is a criminal act in and of itself. You don't get a freebie because you were "just defending yourself". When they say "surrender" the only lawful response is to say "okay".No, you misunderstand. Just participating in the fight on the side of the barbarian and cleric is assisting them. Look at the sequence.(1) Barbarian and cleric kill inn employee for no apparent reason.(2) Town watch shows up to arrest the barbarian, cleric, and fighter since they assume he participated (lacking evidence at this point, a prophylactic arrest makes sense for them).(3) Barbarian, cleric and fighter resist the watchmen, fighting them. In the fight, several of the watchmen are killed. The fighter in question fought against the watchmen, assisting the barbarian and the cleric in their efforts to resist arrest.This is being an accomplice after the fact. The felony having been committed, the fighter is helping the barbarian and cleric in their efforts to avoid arrest by fighting against the town watch rather than surrendering immediately.In addition, resisting arrest, and killing watchmen is probably akin to a felony. Under the traditional felony murder rule, which dates back to the middle ages, anyone who participated in a common felonious criminal act in any way is culpable for muder if anyone dies during the course of that common felonious criminal act.The fighter could very well be guilty of murder under the felony murder rule. He participated in a common felonious criminal act when he resisted arrest along with the barbarian and cleric. When the cleric killed people, he is legally responsible for those deaths.(Side note, this is all assuming that something as kind and generous as basic criminal law as applied in the modern United States is in force. I would doubt that the criminal justice system in a quasi midaevil fantasy setting would necessarily be as forgiving. And under the US system of law, anyone who behaved like the fighter behaved would spend many years in prison, and possibly face the death penalty in jurisdictions that allow for it, since the felony muder rule makes him guilty of first degree murder).Just for fun, I will point out the aggravating circumstances that would make the PCs (including the fighter) death penalty eligible in most jurisdictions in the US that use the death penalty:(1) They killed police officers (watchmen) who were engaged in the conduct of their official duties.(2) They killed more than one person.(3) They killed people while engaged in another felonious action (resisting arrest in this case).(4) They killed people while engaged in a criminal conspiracy (as the barbarian and cleric were engaged in cooperative action to kill the barmaid).Any DA in the US who was in a jursidiction in which the death penalty was allowed could reasonably expect to secure muder convictions and death sentences against all three if he chose to pursue that lega angle.</blockquote>

Verification