This will sound like the longest murder in American history.
Two men could face murder
charges after a man died 15 years after they shot him.
Sheldon Mason, 40, was
left in a critical condition following the 2000 shooting outside his mother’s
house.
He had a leg amputated
following the shooting and died in April from complications due to the gunshot
wounds.
Law professor Charles Reid
told Fox9: ‘Legally there is a name for
this “reclassified homicide”. A person is gravely injured. The injuries prove
life threatening over the long term; the person succumbs to the injury. That is
reclassified from assault to homicide and then it’s up to prosecutors to decide
if it’s worth prosecuting.’
If prosecutors decide to
press the charge, gang members Curtis Dionne and Shaun Kiheg, who were previously
sentenced with assault, will stand convicted of murder.
A medical examiner at
Hennepin County in Minneapolis has ruled Mason’s death murder, as there are
technically no limitations to the timespan in which a murder can be said to
have occurred in the event of a victim’s death.
The dispute was reported
to have been over a bicycle that started at a SuperAmerica store and later
moved to a suburb near Bloomington.
Kihega was originally
sentenced to 11 years in prison, with Dionne receiving 10 years’ probation and
a year’s labour inside a workhouse.
Both have kept a clean record since the
shootout, though Mason’s death could serve up a new twist of fate for the pair
once prosecutors reach their decision.
No comments:
Post a Comment