{"id":723,"date":"2012-04-19T15:25:28","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T19:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/?p=723"},"modified":"2012-05-01T13:36:17","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T17:36:17","slug":"people-v-arzon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/people-v-arzon\/","title":{"rendered":"People v. Arzon, 401 NYS 2d 156 (1978)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Case Name: <\/strong>People v. Arzon<br \/>\n<strong>Citation: <\/strong>401 NYS 2d 156<\/p>\n<p><strong>Facts: <\/strong>Arzon was indicted for two counts of murder in the second degree after intentionally setting fire to a couch and a fireman was killed. The fireman was &#8220;enveloped by a dense smoke,&#8221; which was later discovered to have arisen from another <em>independent<\/em> fire (an independent intervening cause) that had broken out on the second floor. There was virtually no evidence implicating Arzon in the second fire\u2019s responsibility (although it did originate in arson).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Defendant\u2019s argument: <\/strong>The evidence was insufficient to support Arzon&#8217;s murder charge because murder requires a causal link between the underlying crime and the death.<\/p>\n<p><strong>State\u2019s argument: <\/strong>\u201cIt is not necessary that the ultimate harm be intended by the actor. It will suffice if it can be said, beyond a reasonable doubt, as indeed it can here be said, that the ultimate harm is something which should have been foreseen as being reasonably related to the acts of the accused.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holding: <\/strong>Arzon\u2019s motion to dismiss the murder counts was denied.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reasoning: <\/strong>The Court looked at foreseeability after it determined that the defendant\u2019s conduct was foreseeable. It was foreseeable that firemen would respond to the situation, thus exposing them, to a life-threatening danger. The fire set by Arzon was an indispensable link in the chain of events that resulted in the death. The first and second fire were concurrent causes to the same result.<\/p>\n<p>Compare to <a title=\"People v. Warner-Lambert Co., 51 N.Y.2d 295 (1980)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/people-v-warner-lambert-co\/\">People v. Warner-Lambert Co.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Case Name: People v. Arzon Citation: 401 NYS 2d 156 Facts: Arzon was indicted for two counts of murder in the second degree after intentionally setting fire to a couch and a fireman was killed. The fireman was &#8220;enveloped by a dense smoke,&#8221; which was later discovered to have arisen from another independent fire (an &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.miblaw.com\/lawschool\/people-v-arzon\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;People v. Arzon, 401 NYS 2d 156 (1978)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[146,145],"tags":[168,153],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>People v. 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