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Example of an Intervening Superseding Cause

6 October, 2015 - 09:41

Review the example with Henry and Mary in Example of Legal Causation. Change the example so that Henry pulls out a knife and chases Mary out of the garage. Mary escapes Henry and hides in an abandoned shed. Half an hour later, Wes, a homeless man living in the shed, returns from a day of panhandling. When he discovers Mary in the shed, he kills her and steals her money and jewelry. In this case, Henry is still the factual cause of Mary’s death, because he chased her into the shed where she was eventually killed. However, Wes is probably the intervening superseding cause of Mary’s death because he interrupted the chain of events started by Henry. Thus Wesis subject to prosecution for Mary’s death, and Henry may be prosecuted only for assault with a deadly weapon.