Can you kill a corpse?

G'day to you mate! How ya goin? Fit for footy? (Australian for "Are you well enough to play football...or possibly go to a football match'?) Good to see you. C'mon in, pour yourself a mug of arabica coffee and snag a virtual muffin, doughnut or ANZAC cookie, why don't'cha? While we're talking about Australia, ponder this...

Daniel Darrington was spared a murder conviction in October even after admitting intentionally shooting Rocky Matskassy at point-blank range to "relieve his suffering." The Melbourne, Australia, jury decided that Matskassy, in pain from an earlier accidental shooting, was indeed already dead when Darrington shot him.

It began when Rocky Matskassy invited his landlord’s ex-lover over to stay for a weekend. It would prove to be a fateful decision.

Steven Domotor, Matskassy’s landlord, was going out of town that weekend—so Matskassy and Belinda Martin stayed up late drinking, talking, and playing music. Martin ended up staying the night, and slept on a living room recliner while Matskassy slept in his bedroom.

But the innocuous act of having a friend over didn’t sit well with Domotor. Whether or not jealousy for his former lover played a role in what would transpire is unknown. What is known, however, is that Domotor’s friend, Daniel Darrington, confronted Matskassy in the Phillip Street, Sydney home. This is where things get hazy.

Darrington admits to assaulting Matskassy. “He said … he confronted the deceased telling him to get out of his mate’s house,” said prosecutor Peter Rose. “He stated that he had assaulted the deceased by punching and kicking him in the face. He said he then told the deceased to go and clean himself up in the bathroom.”

Darrington claims that when he next saw Matskassy, he was holding a gun behind his back. He claims they wrestled and the gun accidentally discharged, ostensibly killing or nearly-killing Matskassy. Darrington says it looked like Matskassy was suffering, so he found a box of ammunition in his room and fired again into his body.

Under the law of the State of Victoria, it is still "attempted murder" because Darrington believed that Matskassy was still alive when he pulled the trigger. [The Age (Melbourne), 10-28-2015]

Huh? I think I'll have another virtual muffin and a mug of coffee and think that over. Weird world we live in, what... and I won't even mention the horrors that happened in Paris this week. Shame we can't all just get along...

See ya, eh!

Bob