Comment by _heimdall

You don't have to be an EA to take issue with the importance of intent. I put a high value on intent when trying to understand a person, but when having to evaluate an action taken intent barely matters to me.

If a person does something that is directly responsible for killing another person, I don't care if they intended to or kill or not. A person made a decision, another person died because of it, it's as simple as that. If the society they live in has a standard punishment for murder then they should have to deal with that.

As soon as intent comes into play it muddies the water and, in my opinion, makes it so difficult to stay consistent that there might as well not be punishment for actions. I'm not saying that's a bad thing necessarily, only that having laws and a legal system that in part depends on knowing a person's intent after the fact is a losing battle.