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In the case of Florida vs Sarah Boone (the “suitcase murder trial”), a Star Wars reference popped up in the state’s closing argument.
In order to illustrate intention and direct involvement even without physical contact (compared to neglect), the prosecutor giving the speech used two scenes from the well known first Star Wars movie:
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In the scene when Darth Vader grabs the throat of a rebel officer and chokes him to death, everyone agrees that we are watching a murder.
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Parallel to this scene, the prosecutor points out a scene where Darth Vader attacks and kills one of his “coworkers” without physically touching him or even being in the same room or on the same spacecraft. Vader uses the Force to kill the imperial officer. Still, everyone can agree, that we are watching a murder again.
After this, the prosecutor translates this understanding to the case of Sarah Boone and Jorge Torres. He says, Sarah Boone applied a similar “murderous force”, sitting on the couch, walking up to the bedroom, going to sleep, without releasing Jorge Torres from the chokehold of the suitcase she zipped him into.
Related
- Storytelling is a crucial part of criminal trials.
- Don’t look down on fanfictions - living stories are a part of our culture.
- A challenge in the Sarah Boone case was to find the moment when consensual play turned into a murderous act. 5a-one-special-element-of-the-sarah-boone-case-was-that-it-was-hard-to-find-the-moment-when-consensual-play-became-intentional-murder