A US lawyer has pointed out a huge legal issue surrounding the conviction of a mum found guilty of manslaughter after her son shot four children at school.
Jennifer Crumbley is the first US parent convicted of manslaughter over a mass shooting carried out by her child, Ethan, who shot four people in a school shooting.
Prosecutors accused her of being negligent in allowing her son to have a gun and ignoring warning signs. Her husband, James, is facing a separate trial on the same charges.
Speaking to Jacob Rees-Mogg on GBN America, Jeff Swartz, a senior trial counsel in commercial litigation and criminal defence pointed out a problem with the case.
Jeff Swartz pointed out that there is 'no causation'
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He said: "Involuntary manslaughter is either the violation of a legal duty that is owed to the public to do certain things to prevent harm to others and that what you did was the cause of the ultimate harm.
"The other theory is that there was gross negligence in what people consider to be a common law duty, and therefore because you did not take the first steps or some steps to prevent it from happening, you are held responsible for what somebody else does.
"That's kind of the theory that was used here. The problem that existed in the Crumbly case from the very beginning, which didn't pan out, was that you also have to have that causation I talked about.
"There were intervening causes that resulted in the shooting that took place on the part of the administrators of the school, as well as the fact that Mrs Crumley said that she was not in charge of the gun.
Jennifer Crumbley is the first US parent convicted of manslaughter over a mass shooting carried out by her child,
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"My husband was, and he's the one that hid it and he's the one that did things.
"And so, therefore, I am not responsible because my husband may have violated some duty, but I violated no duty to anyone."
He added: "The father is responsible, at least according to the mother's testimony, because he not only bought the gun without her knowledge.
"But in fact, the father took responsibility for placing a trigger lock on it and for hiding the gun and ammunition from their son.
"He did this so he would not attempt to use it or play with it when they were not around or they hadn't taken him to a shooting range, which was the only place he was allowed to have the gun in his hand.
The father in this case is to be trialed separately
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"As far as the administrators are concerned, there was a meeting at the school before the shooting took place.
"The administrators wanted the parents to take the child out of school, but they said that he wasn't dangerous.
"So the parents said no, we're not going to take him out of school.
"The administrator still, apparently now having some fear, decided to place him back in a classroom rather than keep him isolated from the remainder of the student body.
"And that's when the shooting took place. It was their failure to act that they had a statutory duty to act that resulted directly in the cause of the death of the four kids."
