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2 York L. Rev. 6 (2021)
Understanding Jonestown: The Criminal Liabilities of the Port Kaituma Airstrip Shooting and Jonestown Massacre

handle is hein.journals/yorklr2 and id is 12 raw text is: Understanding Jonestown: The Criminal Liabilities of the Port Kaituma Airstrip Shooting and Jonestown Massacre Charlie Tye Abstract This article explores the extent to which those in a cult environment can be said to be responsible for their actions, and whether unlawful acts should instead be attributed to a controlling mind. It focuses on the Peoples Temple, a cult headed by Jim Jones. In 1977, Jones moved his followers to a remote settlement in Guyana, known informally as Jonestown. Conflict with authorities culminated in Jones ordering the assassination of a US Congressman at the Port Kaituma airstrip. Shortly thereafter, Jones ordered a mass suicide involving nearly 1,000 Jonestown residents. This paper argues that Jones could be held criminally responsible for the deaths at both the airstrip and at Jonestown. Firstly, by reviewing the literature on coercive persuasion, this paper suggests individuals within the Peoples Temple might be analogous to non-autonomous robots, incapable of criminal responsibility. Automatism is posited as a defence, and the existing principles of causation can be interpreted to attribute the airstrip shooting to Jim Jones, thought to be the controlling mind. Secondly, by dividing the victims of the Jonestown massacre into three theoretical classes, the article argues that the deaths, despite some superficial willingness, were not voluntary acts and, instead, Jim Jones was the factual and legal cause of death. On this account, the Jonestown Massacre would be an act of murder. A lacking historical account leaves this article hesitant to make definitive claims of guilt or innocence, but a sufficient philosophical and doctrinal argument exists for murder charges to be put to a jury.

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