re: #216 MsJ

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I am not saying this guys is innocent. Not by a long shot. What I read did not say anything about his being drunk or smoke detectors being disabled. Perhaps I missed it. That changes things a little. But I still feel very uncomfortable with criminalizing accidents.

I still see it as negligence, not an accident.

I’m a smoker. If I’m tired, I do not smoke.

Put this a different way: Instead of burning down his own house, he was a visitor at someone else’s house. Instead of killing his own children through negligence, he killed someone else’s.

Does he still get off for an “accident?” If the answer is “yes,” I’m not sure we can come to an agreement here, any more than negligent handling of a firearm.

If he doesn’t get off for killing someone else’s children, then the XIV Amendment applies (equal treatment under the law - someone else’s children have more rights to life than his own children).