Hooray for scenarios

Just remembered a favorite scenario of mine!

PART ONE: A very close family member to you (could be anyone you consider the closest in your family) has killed a stranger for reasons unknown and they confide this secret to you and only you. No one will ever know that they murdered anyone unless you go to the police personally and report them. Which will result in a life sentence for them. Do you keep the secret to yourself for all time or do you report them? Why is this?

PART TWO: Does what you do change if the killer is instead your closest friend or lover?

PART THREE: If you did report them do you visit them in jail or cut ties completely? If you didn't report them does your relationship with them go on as normal?

Also there's no anonymous reports, getting them some kind of bargain, etc anything to keep them out of jail. Once you report them they go to jail for life and they will know it's you who reported them.

It all depends on why they killed someone. Obviously if I find out they are really some amoral sociopath I'm going to turn them in not the least for my own safety. It wouldn't matter if they were family or a lover or a friend. That's too much. I guess I'd draw the line between turning them in or not based on their intentions (as best as I can tell).

An accident or self-defense isn't worth sending them to jail forever in the messed up legal system of this scenario that doesn't allow for leniency. If they killed someone to protect someone else that's tolerable, too. I dunno, I'm a forgiving person and I don't like to think bad of people so I'd probably keep the secret in most cases even though I'd really hate myself for it. I don't know if I could continue to be friends or anything with the person if it wasn't something clear cut like self-defense though.

Part one: I wouldn't tell

Part two: I definitely wouldn't tell

Part three: everything continues as normal

easy!

Obviously I'd ask about the situation. And obviously like Scarf said if they're now some sort of psycho I would consider doing something. But otherwise I really doubt it, I'm not going to rat out somebody I care about that's ****ing ridiculous.

PART ONE: Honestly, I would first find out who they killed and why. If it was an act of self-defense that the police would be unable to prove, then I would probably keep the secret. Even then, I might end up reporting it because if there was any evidence found that it was my family member, then I could end up serving jail time as well for holding information from the police.

PART TWO: I think it's the same scenario as part one, it would just depend on what happened and how.

PART THREE: If I did report them, then I would visit them, and explain that it was the right thing to do. If they start to show any more hostility towards me, then I might not be as inclined to visit, but I would probably still show up once and a while.

If I didn't report them, it would have only been because they killed someone in self-defense, so my relationship with them wouldn't change too much, but it still might make me uncomfortable at times.

Part I - Why did they kill them? I probably won't tell, if it was someone I didn't know.
Part II - Well they're my family, so... I would keep it a secret.
Part III - If I did report them--wait, didn't you say they were gonna die? Unless this is before they die, I would probably say "sorry" or something...

PART ONE: Depends on if I care about/ like that family member.

PART TWO: Depends on why they murdered someone.. accident? revenge? psychopathic tendencies? will I still be able to trust them after I find out? What action would be in their best interest?

PART THREE: Also depends on the factors listed above for both questions. If I didn't care, I wouldn't visit. Would I still be able to trust them after I find out? Sure the relationship would be different but there are steps to work through it to keep it healthy and ongoing..

Part 1: I'd keep the secret for the sake of friendship

Part 2: I may end up reporting the incident to the police

Part 3: I'd still visit the person in jail.

"murdered", you say? well, since that term is used, i'm assuming that my family member/lover/closest friend had planned to kill in the first place. with that being the case, no matter how much i love them, i'd have to turn them in. but let's say it was a "spur of the moment" thing, an act of self-defence, then that would make it only homicide, and i probably wouldn't take the same amount of time to turn them in had it been murder. honestly, i would probably still have to tell the cops, but probably after two or three days after knowing.

for part three, if i did report them, then yes, i'd still visit them in jail. regardless of what s/he's done, we were very close (as dictated by the circumstance of this scenario), so of course i'd still have to interact with him/her.

Ayselipera said:

Just remembered a favorite scenario of mine!

PART ONE: A very close family member to you (could be anyone you consider the closest in your family) has killed a stranger for reasons unknown and they confide this secret to you and only you. No one will ever know that they murdered anyone unless you go to the police personally and report them. Which will result in a life sentence for them. Do you keep the secret to yourself for all time or do you report them? Why is this?

PART TWO: Does what you do change if the killer is instead your closest friend or lover?

PART THREE: If you did report them do you visit them in jail or cut ties completely? If you didn't report them does your relationship with them go on as normal?

Also there's no anonymous reports, getting them some kind of bargain, etc anything to keep them out of jail. Once you report them they go to jail for life and they will know it's you who reported them.

Click to expand...

Part 1

If it was my immediate family there's almost no chance I'd report them, I care about them too much to ever want them to be in jail forever suffering. It would be a horrible situation but it is what it is, next to nothing could convince me to turn on them. Relatives, possibly. It depends on the who what when where and why, but I won't say I'd never turn them in.

Part 2

There are some friends I would turn in and others I wouldn't. It mostly would have to do with how safe I felt after they told me and the situation.

Part 3

If I reported somebody it was because I wasn't that emotionally attached to them despite their status as a friend or relative. It's situational like everything else but in most cases I don't think I would carry on visiting them indefinitely.

Something that popped into my head while thinking about this was a scenario where somebody innocent ended up getting mischarged and carrying out the sentence. If it came to that I would be torn apart inside and have to turn the person in.