Keller has to die like this?
He ain't a sinful guy!
sharePresumably, Keller did not die. The detective heard the red whistle.
"Don't get chumpatized!" - The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
MovieChat Forums > Prisoners (2013) Discussion > Keller has to die like this?
Did he mean well to want to save his daughter? Yes.
Did he commit a horrible crime by torturing an innocent man stuck in the mind of a 10 year old? Yes
Should he have to face the consequences for it? Absolutely.
Keller tortured his suspect, but he never intended to kill him.
If he is found and tried, he will likely get a light sentence given the extenuating circumstances. But it is likely that the nightmare will never be forgotten by his family. Maybe eventually, if his daughter fully recovers from the trauma and Keller is sorry for his act of violence, the family will be back to its pre-Thanksgiving relatively happy existence?
How do you know he didn't intend on killing him? Do you think after all that torture and abuse, that hypothetically, once he finally told him where the girls were, that he was just going to let him walk freely? And incriminate himself? I don't think so.
I don't think he had any intent of letting him go, ever.
Because Keller explicitly stated that he doesn't want to have to hurt him. He begged him to tell of the whereabouts of his daughter and promised to stop torturing him if he did. During their last encounter, there are tears in Keller's eyes and he begs him and finally, he tells Keller important information and Keller stops torturing him. Keller's mind was not on killing. It was only on his daughter.
Assuming Alex lived, Keller would get charged with kidnapping and aggravated battery more than likely - both felonies. I don't think his crimes would get mitigated. He likely would not get charged with attempted murder because he lacked the mens rea. Attempted murder is a specific intent crime, therefore requiring a higher degree of specificity when it comes to the intent. So if Alex didn't die, in order for Keller to be guilty of attempted murder, the prosecution would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt (very high evidentiary standard) that Keller specifically had the intent to kill Alex. It is very unlikely that a unanimous jury would convict him of having that intent.
Now, if Alex died, then Keller would get charged with some form of common law murder because that is a general intent crime (the type of murder would depend on the jurisdiction's statute) and all the prosecution would need to prove is that Keller had caused serious bodily harm that foreseeably could lead to Alex's death. Perhaps felony murder is what he would get charged with since it would be a death as a result of kidnapping (kidnapping would be the proximate cause of Alex's death - perhaps he starved or bled to death). If Keller was convicted of felony murder, the aggravated battery charge would probably merge so he would go to prison only for kidnapping and felony murder. His sentence may get shortened due to the extenuating circumstances, but his crimes likely would not be mitigated. If Pennsylvania (that's the state this movie takes place in, right?) has a statute specifically for torture, he would get charged with that as well, but again, depending on what the elements of torture are according to the statute, the torture crime may merge into the felony murder.
Did he mean well to want to save his daughter? Yes.
Did he commit a horrible crime by torturing an innocent man stuck in the mind of a 10 year old? Yes
Should he have to face the consequences for it? Absolutely.
He lives, Loki hears the whistle.
I don't thing he will get a mitigated sentance. Should Alex be guilty, yes he could, but Alex wasn't guilty, so he did in fact tortured already abused person.