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Geoffrey wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2021 12:17 am ... a judge and jury have to announce guilty or not guilty. i can't remember the speaker saying what conclusion the judge arrived at regarding the men in the boat...

The men were found guilty of murder. The case is officially known as Regina v Dudley and Stephens, which established a precedent throughout the common law world that "necessity" is not an acceptable defence to a charge of murder. In other words, the ruling was that killing an innocent person is wrong and unjustified, even if one believes that it is necessary to do so in order to save themselves and others.

Good night!

>The men were found guilty of murder. The case is officially known as Regina v Dudley and Stephens, which established a precedent throughout the common law world that "necessity" is not an acceptable defence to a charge of murder. In other words, the ruling was that killing an innocent person is wrong and unjustified, even if one believes that it is necessary to do so in order to save themselves and others.

i looked it up on wikipedia. it says they were sentenced to death at first, and then imprisoned for six months before being let loose. six months for a murder under those circumstances was an acceptable punishment. not an easy case to find a fitting punishment, but a good one was found nevertheless.

Geoffrey wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2021 4:47 pm ...i looked it up on wikipedia. it says they were sentenced to death at first, and then imprisoned for six months before being let loose. six months for a murder under those circumstances was an acceptable punishment. not an easy case to find a fitting punishment, but a good one was found nevertheless.

Indeed. I thought it was a bit hypocritical to sentence them to death. However, that may have been more merciful in the long run.

In my brief online search to try to find out what became of Dudley and Stephens after they were released, it sounds like they were both quite traumatised and forever haunted by what happened on that boat -- from what I could find, Stephens went "quietly mad", and Dudley sought solace in large quantities of opium (and then died of bubonic plague). No happy ending for those men, but not really a surprise, under the circumstances.

This conversation is getting depressing. Time to move on!

who took more opium? Did Peter cook
or was it Dudley More?