MOVIES & CRIME: A PERFECT MURDER

 

A Perfect Murder

Mmmmm . . . money.  Money is my muscle.  Money is my iron.  Money is power. 

 

Money is a constant.  Money is a universal reinforcer of power.  Money is a powerful reinforcer that satisfies our innate drives.  Money provides food, shelter, clothes, —and sex appeal.  Reinforcing power of money lends primary rewards.  Money is a powerful secondary reinforcer.  And force of our primary reinforcers varies.  Person may have varying degrees of appetite throughout the day.  He may have a bigger appetite earlier in the morning than late in the afternoon. 

  

No wonder money invites crimes.  Crimes for money as a reward are natural.    People avoid crimes some of the time but not all of the time.  What prevents them from committing a crime?  Conditioning.  People are conditioned by the community in which they live in and by the society as a whole.  Take a look at a scenario.  You join a meeting at a room in a hotel.  On the way to the hotel room, you notice a table that is set out in the hall.  On the table are precious jewels that are valued at high prices.  What would you do?  Would your respond differently according to environmental variants?  Chances are yes.  How many people are visible?  Who is watching me?  Now you know they are not your to take.  Drinks and snacks are served as refreshments for guests; expensive jewels are not.  Jewels worth a lot of money are the stimulus.  Stimuli stop you.  You stop.  You take a look.  So are you going to take it or not?  If you take the jewels when no one else is looking then you have failed the experiment for instrumental conditioning.  If you opt not to take the jewel then you have been conditioned well.

       

 “Money honey," Emily’s friend say is the first reason to kill in A Perfect Murder.  And Emily’s husband Steven loves money.  Steven is a Wall Street financier who values money.  But his finances are collapsing.  He looks to his wife Emily who is then reduced in his eyes to a mere sacrificial lamb as a means to his ends.  Criminal minds work differently than your average citizen’s.  Emily is a translator for United Nations but comes from a good family that has accrued wealth —one of which her trust funds amounts to millions.  Millions her husband Steven need.

  

Emily & David  (Gwyneth Paltrow & Viggo Mortensen)

Steven discovers that his wife Emily is cheating on him with a much younger man David, an artist with a full criminal history.  David is a career criminal.  David cons women.  David is also a wild card.  Does he care for Emily?  Is Emily just another one of his female con jobs?  Surprisingly David’s crimes are less severe than Steven’s.  In A Perfect Murder, David (at most) can be charged with extortion.  Blackmail or extortion is a misdemeanor.  It is not a serious crime.  However, Emily’s husband Steven would be charged with Murder in the First Degree —Attempted Murder in the 1^st.  

Steven hires David to murder his wife

Steven has a higher inner drive for money and power paired with weak conditioning.  His primal inner drive for money drives him to commit crimes to satisfy his desire for power and status.  Men who strive for status and power often lack good character.  On the contrary, a leader's pertinent quality is his integrity and content of character.  Oprah Winfrey had a segment on her show in which women married to powerful men had lost their trust in men after uncovering their husband’s ordeals.  The wives were deprived of open communications with their husbands that build trusts in a relationship and were  mostly kept in the dark of their whereabouts.  Good example is someone like Eliot Spitzer, former Attorney General who struck down the prostitution ring in New York City only to be later found guilty of a prostitute scandal as an acting Governor.  The scandal prompted his resignation.  

Steven hires David to murder his wife Emily.  David opts out but sends another man to do the deed.  Steven has already conjured up his plan to make it look like an intruder barged in on her premise.  David is an experienced criminal; he thinks the plan can go to ruins.  David opts out and sends another man to do the deed.  The man in his place flops badly.  David demands money from Steven by blackmail for the job.  David is liable for attempted extortion.  He had not successfully gained his money.  In court, he can only be accused of an attempt for extortion.

  

Statutes that satisfy extortion:

 

Unlawfully injure or threaten a person or property of another.

Accuse the individual or relative of a family member of a crime.

Expose or impute to the individual threatened or any of the persons of any deformity, disgrace, or crime.

Threats to expose affecting the person.

 

David threatens to expose Steven for his attempted murder in the first degree of his wife Emily.  He had attempted extortion but had not succeeded. 

On the other hand, David’s friend or replacement would be charged with a felony.  Emily is one woman who will defend herself against an intruder leaving a puddle of blood on the kitchen floor.  Replacement is taken away in a body bag.  Emily survives.  If David was smart and he is experienced, he would have avoided committing a crime that would get him into real trouble.  Felony is more severe than a misdemeanor.  Statute felonies equal to state prison than a local prison; prison sentences run lengthier than a year.  Death penalty can result out of felonies.  Common law felonies are punishable by forfeiture of lands, goods, or both.  Some examples include arson, robbery, burglary, larceny, mayhem, sodomy, manslaughter, and murder.  Felony charges can gravely stymie a man's future —by the way in which doors close than open to him for jobs, home & car loans, life insurance.  

Steven hired David to break into his house and murder his wife Emily.  David opted out; he sent another guy to do the work.  Had the guy successfully murdered Emily, he would have been charged with felony murder.  He committed a felony by breaking into a house which looks like attempted burglary.  He trespassed into an inhabited dwelling (where someone regularly sleeps) in the night time covered and dressed in black from head-to-toe.  That is evident enough that he had intended to commit burglary when he stepped into the house. 

 

Steven intended to commit murder with malice aforethought —intent to kill, actual or implied.   Defendant intended to cause death.  Defendant intended to cause great bodily harm.  And he did it in the first degree. 

Murder in the 1^st requirements are met:

            Premeditation:  deliberating and weighing

            Proof of actual due consideration

Luckily for Emily, her most recent flame David sent her a taped recording of his talk with her husband Steven for the job.  David got murdered by Steven later on board the train en route to Montreal.  Steven stabbed him to death.  That is another count of murder charge. 

When Emily finds out of her husband’s plan to murder her, she confronts him defending herself to his death.  Emily survives again.  Frankly, I do not know what her husband was thinking . . . trying to do a number on a woman who came from a privileged background with solid finances than he could ever conjure up for himself.  Steven had dug himself into a financial ditch and resorted to resolve it by his own means which only results in a failed attempt of murder of his own wife.  Responsible for two counts of murder charges —David’s and attempted 1^st Degree Murder of his wife Emily, Steven would have been sentenced without parole.  When the police arrive (you may recognize the actor Suchet who plays Detective Mohamed Karamen), Emily plays the tape that David had sent her.  The tape is her proof of actual due consideration of Steven’s plan to murder her in the first degree.  Emily will be acquitted of any charges.  Her whole life stands before her.