4.2.12 WC: 191694 Attempted Murders: Killing a Corpse and the “Abraham Defense” A case that involved both science and logic arose in the context of the attempted murder prosecution of a young man who had shot a corpse, believing that it was still alive. The case presented a series of perplexing scientific and logical riddles: When is a person who has been mortally wounded actually dead? Can you kill a man who is already dead? If not, can you attempt to kill a man who is already dead if you believe he is still alive. My client had watched one acquaintance, who was having a disagreement with another acquaintance, shoot him in the heart. The shooter then asked my client to shoot the victim in the head, which he did. On the first appeal, which I argued in Brooklyn, the court reversed the murder conviction on the basis of scientific evidence that it was impossible to know whether the victim was alive or dead at the moment my client shot him in the head, since someone else had shot him in the heart just moments earlier. It ruled that the prosecution had not satisfied its burden of proving he was still alive when my client’s bullet shattered his brain. The court also ruled that my client could not be convicted of attempted murder, on the ground that since it is factually impossible to murder a corpse; it is also legally impossible to attempt to do that which it is factually impossible to do. On the second appeal, which I argued in Albany, the court agreed that my client could not be convicted of murder because “man dies but once,” but it concluded that he should be convicted of attempted murder. I then brought a federal Habeus Corpus petition, and the federal court threw out the attempted murder conviction as well. My client went free. This intriguing case, which I wrote about in more detail Zhe Best Defense, is taught today in many law schools as part of the standard course on criminal law. The issue of whether it is legally possible to attempt to do what is factually imp