The "one stop" WHY IT DOES NOT MATTER IF IT WAS A FAKE BOMB thread [View all]

[jberryhill]

I'll just put this in one place here for reference. It has puzzled me that people think it matters one way or the other if the guy made a "real bomb" or a "fake bomb" or "a bomb intended to detonate".

I am a little less puzzled now, since having taken a look at the eejits at Freeperville, many of them seem to think there is an important distinction there.

There is not.

The MAGABOMBER is charged with these offenses:

Violations of 18 U.S.C.
§§ 1716, 879, 844(d), (e),
875, 111, and 2

The one relevant to "mailing a bomb" is this one: 18 USC 844

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/844


(d) Whoever transports or receives, or attempts to transport or receive, in interstate or foreign commerce any explosive with the knowledge or intent that it will be used to kill, injure, or intimidate any individual or unlawfully to damage or destroy any building, vehicle, or other real or personal property, shall be imprisoned for not more than ten years, or fined under this title, or both; and if personal injury results to any person, including any public safety officer performing duties as a direct or proximate result of conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall be imprisoned for not more than twenty years or fined under this title, or both; and if death results to any person, including any public safety officer performing duties as a direct or proximate result of conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall be subject to imprisonment for any term of years, or to the death penalty or to life imprisonment.

The device had pyrotechnic material of some kind, and was sent with the intent to intimidate. Thirteen of them.

Notice that the statute does not care if the intent is:

"kill, injure, or intimidate"

The statute does not care if you made a fake bomb or a real bomb. It does not matter if your intent was to kill, or merely to intimidate. It is the same freaking statute.

A number of people have suggested this would be relevant to an "attempted murder" charge. Murder is a state crime, not a federal crime. The feds would not be charging him with murder or attempted murder anyway.

To recap - The US law that is relevant to "sending a mail bomb" doesn't care if it is intended to explode or not. Anyone that thinks this is an important distinction one way or the other is either reading the wrong sorts of things in the first place, or simply misinformed.