People V Richard Moore

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The movie’s central plot is a case (The People v. Richard Moore (priest)) on a negligent homicide involving a parish priest (Richard Moore) who performed an exorcism on a young girl named Emily Rose who dies later of starvation, malnutrition and self inflicted wounds. As a lawyer I will take up the above case as the prosecutor representing the interest of the people and the state. The legal provisions that are applicable to the case include (an American case studied in Indian context):  Causing death by Negligence, Section 304A, Indian Penal Code, 1860 Emily (the victim) was diagnosed with epilepsy and psychosis by Dr. Mueller, the University doctor and was prescribed a medicine for the same. However, as the symptoms of her conditions were similar …show more content…

hallucinations, seizures and physical contortion as per the priest’s belief after Emily was brought home, he asked her to stop taking the anti-seizure medication. According to the priest, the treatment failed to cure her as her condition was a spiritual one and performed an exorcism. In this case, even though the priest had no intention to kill Emily, and did act in good faith trying to help Emily, yet he acted in a rash and negligent manner by denying her of proper medical help, so section 304A, IPC, 1860 is applicable. This act of the priest was the immediate cause of death (not a remote cause) of Emily, because in this case if the anti- seizure medicines would have been given to Emily, her death could have been prevented as her medicine (Gambutrol) has a cumulative effect on the patient and not an immediate effect, which the priest took as a sign of it having failed to cure Emily. Further, as held in Kanaiyalal Arjandas v. Tribhuvandas the Supreme Court of India, explained that to render a person liable for neglect of duty there must be such a degree of culpability as to amount to gross negligence