The past month has seen tragic consequences for many Palestinian and Israeli civilians. Hamas fired rockets from hospitals, schools, and other locations
The past month has seen tragic consequences for many Palestinian and Israeli civilians. Hamas fired rockets from hospitals, schools, and other locations where civilians are forced to remain, many of whom suffered injury or death when Israel returned fire. Myopically viewing these events, critical media report only that “Israel has killed” or is “responsible for” the deaths of Palestinians. But is Israel truly responsible for these deaths? If something similar occurred in the U.S., which side would be criminally responsible for these casualties? Criminal law distinguishes between the “direct” (or “actual”) cause of death and the “legal” (or “proximate”) cause. The direct cause is the act that immediately inflicts the fatal harm. Legal causation concerns fault for the harm, and who deserves blame for it. The California Supreme Court addressed the contrast in the 1918 Fowler case. Defendant Fowler beat victim Duree and left him for dead in the middle of a dark road. An unsuspecting motorist then drove over the body. The Supreme Court held it did not matter whether the automobile inflicted the fatal wound (rendering the driving the direct cause), or whether Duree was already dead (so the beating was the direct cause). Either way, fault (and legal causation) lay with Fowler, because death was the “natural and probable result of the defendant’s… leaving [the victim] helpless and… exposed to that danger.” Legal causation and direct causation likewise diverged in a Florida case.
