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I think a one punch law in the US would not align with a lot of communities' senses of justice. Two guys get into a fight, there's a bunch of shoving, then one of them socks the other in the nose and they fall and hit their head and die... and the survivor gets the max penalty for any crime in Australia, life in prison?
There are differing versions of the law in different states. There seems to be certain requirements for the 'unlawful striking leading to death' laws to activate. In some cases it needs to be a single punch thrown under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. In other cases harsher sentencing is reserved for 'coward punch' strikes where the victim is unaware that the strike is taking place (punch from behind for instance, or attacking a random passerby).
Some example punishments:
10 years for a single punch thrown outside a birthday party leading to death while the assaulter was drunk
10 years after a thug punched a surgeon trying to enforce a no smoking sign out the front of a hospital leading to death
10 years for punching someone unprovoked from behind at the casino food court while drunk leading to death
8 years for punching someone after the victim supposedly stole the killer's food from a takeaway 'hole in the wall' after a night out leading to death
Minimum sentencing seems to be around 8-10 years and that seems to be the standard punishment given for these sorts of offenses after 10 minutes of googling. Some offenders are eligible for parole after serving half their sentence. Seems fairly reasonable to me, particularly with the ability to allow parole.
Maximum sentence of life imprisonment doesn't seem to have been given out yet and would presumably require aggravating factors.
All this being said, these laws seem to be for a 'one guy throws a single punch (starting the fight) and retreats' situation rather than 'two guys willingly start shoving each other, participating in escalation to a brawl' scenario. Details on the OP seem to be murky at the moment.
Yeah. You do have things more akin to a consensual fistfight duel than one asshole attacking another guy who might just have been a bit less of an asshole that day. In that case I think a much more minor sentence is appropriate...two guys deciding to take it outside and one of them dying from what's basically a shitty bare knuckle boxing match might mean a year or two in prison basically as punishment for fucking up a duel that wasn't supposed to kill anyone.
Life imprisonment is a bit excessive here, and 8 to 10 years sounds like what you'd expect for manslaughter.
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