Are You Trying To Kill Me? Yes Or No!

This morning when I logged into Meebo, I noticed that a patron had left us this question:

Why doesn't Mississippi have a law for attempted murder?

Well, I'm definitely not a lawyer, and as a reference librarian, I'm not allowed to attempt any interpretation of the law, but I, naturally, thought, "Piffle! Of course Mississippi has a law for attempted murder!" First I turned to the Mississippi Code (Did you know you can access it online here?) and flipped through the index to Homicide (§ 97-3-15 - § 97-3-47). Attempted murder was not listed, but funnily enough, right above homicide (found in the chapter on Crimes Against the Person) is a law entitled § 97-3-1 Abduction For Purposes Of Marriage. Apparently it is illegal to force anyone over the age of fourteen to marry you. Good, at least I'm covered there! I tried the same search with manslaughter (nope) and began to become suspicious. Could it be? Was my patron right after all? Does Mississippi not have an attempted murder law?

I turned next to Lexis-Nexis State Capitol, one of our subscription databases where it is possible to look up past legislation. It turns out that nearly every year since 1992 someone has introduced legislation proposing that attempted murder become a criminal offense along with associated penalties. Guess what! Every year that it has been introduced the bill has died! I even spoke with Representative Bill Denny, who sponsored so many of these bills. He expressed his frustration about the failure for the bill to pass in the past, but stated that he plans to try again this year.

I did a quick Google search and found a news article from a few years ago all about this very topic. Donnie Register, a man who was shot in the head during an armed robbery stated

When I said that it was attempted murder, (police officers) said ‘We don’t have that charge.'

Wow.

This article from the Jackson Free Press is even more recent and iterates the same thing. I did turn up several blog posts from enterprising law field people like this one and this one, but these leave a lot of room for interpretation and you remember, I'm not allowed to do any legal interpretation! One of those blog entries references § 97-1-7, and sure enough, it is entitled Attempt To Commit Offense; Punishment. I think I remember why I decided to go into a field other than law when I started college--This is all very confusing!

I finally decided that I don't know if Mississippi has an attempted murder charge. It kind of doesn’t look like we do, at least not one that is called “attempted murder.” We might! We might not! Here, however, are some sources for legal services in Mississippi that may help you in your search.

Good luck, Meebo patron! And thank goodness for lawyers out there who do real live legal interpretation!

Canadian Inheritance from Meebo Patron.

Dear Meebo Patron,

Thanks for your question about Canadian inheritance taxes. From your note, I wasn't sure if you were asking from the perspective of someone in the U.S. or Canada, but nevertheless, Canada's inheritance tax was repealed in 1972. Estates are treated as sales and taxes owed are paid by the estate, not the beneficiaries.

However, because we are not attorneys, I recommend that you contact the Canada Revenue Agency's International Tax Services Office at 1-800-267-5177 or find a lawyer in your area specializing in estate planning (you can do this through a Google search: "estate planning and your city, your state," but I recommend following the Mississippi Bar's recommendations on finding a lawyer as well).

I hope this helps! Please let us know if you need anything else, and thanks again for your question!

Mississippi Decoded

About once a week, I end up leafing through the trusty Mississippi Code to find the answer to reference request. Did you know that it's a set of thirty-one books? That's not including the indices, court rules, legal forms, etc..., etc... What a set to lug around, right?! If you ever want to have a glance without shelling out for the whole set, your local public library more than likely has it. You can also contact us!

Today as I flipped to the end of Title 97 (Title 97 gets a whole book to itself!), the word dueling caught my eye. That's right, folks. There is a whole chapter in Mississippi law devoted to the subject of dueling! (I must interject that said chapter is only three pages long.) Of course, the good stuff is all wrapped up in an incoherent slew of legalese. Let me demonstrate:

§ 97-39-5. Leaving the state for purposes of duel.

If any person shall send, deliver, or cause to be sent or delivered, any challenge, written or verbal, in this state, to any person to fight a duel out of this state, or shall leave this state to fight a duel out of the same, or shall accept such challenge out of this state, and shall leave this state for the purpose of fighting a duel; or if any person shall leave this state for the purpose of sending, accepting, or bearing a challenge, or the acceptance thereof, to fight a duel or shall knowingly bear any challenge, or be concerned as second, aid, or surgeon, of either party, without this state, the person so offending shall be subject to the like punishment as is provided in Sections 97-39-1 and 97-39-3.

Isn't that a beautiful thing? I have deciphered this as meaning, "You can't go duel out of state, so don't even try it." I've been wondering if, say, Alabama was having a problem with prospective duelers sneaking over the state line to duke it out in the moonlight.
The rest of the chapter delves into an excruciatingly detailed account of how one cannot duel, watch a duel, help a dueler, get mad at someone who won't duel, and so on. For your further edification, the punishment mentioned above is a $300-$1,000 fine and/or at least 6 months in the county clinky.
We promise to be more faithful about delivering these fascinating nuggets to our admiring public in the future. We hate that you've been having to go without! Goodness, we wouldn't want anyone to challenge us to BB guns at sunup in Tennessee. (How about loaded Oreos?)

Mississippi Code 1972, annotated. LexisNexis, 2008.

Air Supply

A few weeks ago we received a question about land ownership. While researching that question, I found some interesting information. Did you know that you can own air? I had no idea!

As I began to look into this further, I realized that it can get pretty complicated. So, I’ll just give you a bit of the basics that I’ve learned so far.

According to the book Real Estate Principles, the original thought was that when a person (let’s call him Burly Bob) owns land, he also owns all the land below the surface of the earth down to the center of the earth. Even better, Burly Bob also owns all of the space above it, out into the universe and beyond.

Today, things can get a little bit sticky. If Bob sells the mineral rights of his land, he no longer owns the land beneath the surface of the earth. Someone else (Sassy Sally) could buy the rights to the oil or coal found on Bob’s land, for example. In addition, airplanes can fly over space wherever they want without interfering with Bob’s air rights. However, if the plane flies too low, Bob could try to get compensation for the use of his property.

Air rights are generally mandated by city ordinance. Here’s where it gets really interesting.
According to the University of Michigan, air can be bought and sold. Cities will sometimes grant land owners a certain number of air credits. If you don’t use all your air credits, you can sell them.

For example, let’s say Burly Bob owns a little gas station, and Tycoon Tammy wants to build a high-rise hotel next door. Bob can sell Tammy his air credits. Then, Tycoon Tammy can build the hotel much higher than the original zoning height ordinance. Here’s a nice illustrated explanation from the University of Michigan: The University of Michigan also notes that the city of Philadelphia created its Transfer of Development Rights Program in 1991. Previously, there was an “…old gentlemen's agreement…not to build a downtown building higher that the hat on the sculpture of William Penn on the City Hall.” But as the city grew, this agreement became more difficult to enforce. The TDR was written to help keep the historic feel of downtown while allowing for growth.

Here’s an interesting article from the New York Times. A church in Manhattan sold its air rights to an apartment complex developer. How much? Oh, just a measly $430 per square foot!

I don’t know how they do it, making money out of nothing at all. (My apologies to the 80's power- ballad band Air Supply.)

References:
Floyd, Charles. Real Estate Principles. Chicago: Dearborn Real Estate, 2002.

The New York Times 30 Nov. 2005. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/nyregion/30air.html?_r=3&emc=eta1

“Transfer of Development Rights.” University of Michigan. 9 Mar. 2009 http://www.emich.edu/public/geo/557book/d244.tdr.html