There is an old adage among lawyers that goes, “hard cases make bad law.” As explained by former Law School Professor Alice Baker, “a ‘hard’ case is a case that involves extreme unfairness. It’s a case that seems to cry out for a remedy so strongly that judges may be motivated by sympathy for the plaintiff’s plight, check their brains at the door, and fail to think through the logical implications of the legal rule they are creating. Whenever you find yourself saying, ‘Somebody’s gotta pay!’ that’s an indication that you’ve fallen into the world of ‘hard cases make bad law.’ It’s a warning signal that you need to be extra careful to think through the logical implications of every legal rule you adopt, so you don’t inadvertently create legal rules that do not work well when they’re generalized to other cases.”
Recently, a very hard case in Michigan has made some extremely bad law – law that could easily become a major problem for parents across the country.
“On Tuesday, Nov. 30, [2021] police say [15 year old] student Ethan Crumbley opened fire at Oxford High School, fatally striking four teenage students and wounding six students and one teacher. The shooting only lasted minutes, according to law enforcement, who arrived on the scene quickly after receiving more than 100 calls to 911 due to the active shooter. Deputies with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office apprehended the shooter, who reportedly surrendered to them without incident.”
Tragic as these events are, this would appear to be just one mass school shooting out of the hundred or so which have occurred across the world in the past few years. Another disaffected young person who gained access to a weapon, and took out his frustrations on his fellow students.
Despite his young age, two years after the shooting, Crumbley was sentenced to life without parole. “Dismissing last-minute defense pleas that Crumbley’s life is salvageable, Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwamé Rowe noted that the ‘defendant in his own words’ told the court ‘this is nobody’s fault but his own.’ Rowe said victim Justin Shilling, 17, was shot at point-blank range after being told by the defendant to get on his knees. Hana St. Juliana, 14, was shot a second time after she was down…[Judge Rowe stated] ‘That is an execution. That is torture. He shot most people multiple times. And, as he wrote, he did this for notoriety. And he wanted to go down … as the biggest school shooter in Michigan history.’”
We can debate whether someone as young as 17 years old at the time of his sentencing should receive incarceration for life without the possibility of parole. But there can be no reasonable doubt that a crime of this magnitude richly deserves a very severe punishment.
No, the issue here does not involve the arrest, prosecution and conviction of Ethan Crumbley. Instead, we are concerned with the fate of his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley.
In December of 2021, “Oakland County, Michigan prosecutor Karen McDonald filed four counts of involuntary manslaughter against James and Jennifer Crumbley… [a]t the press conference announcing the charges, McDonald openly expressed her frustration with Michigan’s firearms laws. Like many midwestern states, Michigan has a strong hunting tradition, and fully anticipates its minor children will handle firearms…[t]hat’s likely why McDonald kept stressing the importance of ‘responsible’ gun ownership. She’s acknowledging to her constituents — and voters — that teens can have access to firearms in Michigan if done responsibly. This is in contrast to what the state alleges the Crumbleys did: allow their son access to a gun despite repeated warnings that he might use the weapon to hurt others.”
According to attorney Samuel Strom, “Involuntary manslaughter (also called criminally negligent manslaughter) occurs when one person kills another resulting from an accident or gross negligence. It also occurs when someone intends to cause bodily harm to another person but without the intent to kill them. Unlike a murder charge, involuntary manslaughter means that a person had no intention of killing another but, due to their careless or reckless actions, caused the death of a human being.”
Before trial, the Crumbley’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the charges, arguing that “the charges have no legal justification and that they should not be held responsible for their son’s killings.” However, the Michigan appellate court disagreed; “We share defendants’ concern about the potential for this decision to be applied in the future to parents whose situation viz-a-viz their child’s intentional conduct is not as closely tied together, and/or the warning signs and evidence were not as substantial as they are here,” the Court wrote. In justifying these charges in this case, “the judges cited text messages from the months before the massacre in which Crumbley told his parents about experiencing paranoia and hallucinations, including his belief that a demon was throwing objects around the house. When his mother didn’t reply, he sent her another message asking, ‘can you at least text back.’ His mother did not text back that day and was riding horses with James at the time, according to the opinion. Crumbley also told a friend that he believed he was having a mental breakdown and asked his parents for medical help but that his father told him to ‘suck it up’ and his mother laughed, according to the opinion.”
At the trial of Ethan’s mother Jennifer, the “[t]he prosecution had to prove one of two theories beyond a reasonable doubt:
1. That Jennifer ’caused death’ due to her grossly negligent actions, or
2. That Jennifer breached her duty as a parent to ‘exercise reasonable care to control their minor child so as to prevent the minor child from intentionally harming others or prevent the minor child from conducting themselves in a way that creates an unreasonable risk of bodily harm to others.’”
As described by attorney Strom, “the prosecution argued that Ethan asked his parents for mental health help from a professional, which they ignored…[Ethan’s father James] bought Ethan a gun on November 26, 2021. On November 30, 2021, a teacher found a drawing Ethan left on his desk. The drawing depicted a handgun, a person appearing to have been shot, and a message saying, ‘The thoughts won’t stop,’ and ‘Help me.’ A concerned school staff member reported the note to the administration. The school called Ethan’s parents, who met with school staff about the drawing and notes that day. The prosecution asserted that the parents decided to leave Ethan in school that day rather than take him home. Neither parent told the school about Ethan’s mental health issues or that they had bought him a gun recently. Shortly after the meeting, Ethan committed the mass shooting with the gun his parents bought just days earlier.”
Judge Wilson’s analysis concludes tomorrow
Judge John Wilson (ret.) served on the bench in NYC
Photo: Pixabay