Jessica Mederson and I launched The Legal Geeks on July 12, 2012. The last nine years have been a wonderful adventure in meeting amazing lawyers, judges, and fellow geeks. We have blogged on movies, TV shows, and comics.
We have been fortunate to present at San Diego Comic Con, Nerd Nites, and other shows across the country. Above all else on our travels, we have met people who are about the law.
We were able to visit with many friends about some of our past adventures and discuss what we are looking forward to in the rest of 2021 and 2022. Please enjoy our retrospective on our journey so far.
Bounty hunting is a complicated profession. That is why lawyers geeked out over all of the legal issues in The Mandalorian. Can bounty hunters use lethal force? Is it murder to shoot a Droid or destruction of property? Are former Imperials all war criminals? Find the legal answers to these questions and more in This is the Law, featuring Circuit Judge John B. Owens (Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals); U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman; Judge Matthew Sciarrino (New York State Supreme Court, Criminal Term Brooklyn), and moderated by Nari Ely (US Courts) and Joshua Gilliland (Greenan, Peffer, Sallander & Lally LLP). Presented by The Legal Geeks: https://linktr.ee/thelegalgeeks
I have spoken.
Loki has not made the best life choices in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. From embittered younger brother who attempted to overthrow his father, to attempted murder of Thor multiple times, to getting mixed up with Thanos and a failed invasion of Earth, there are many crimes for Loki to be charged and prosecuted for violating. Like personally killed 50 people. Or ripping out a man’s eye. A War of Aggression. And now in the Loki series, we learned there was air piracy.
In the real world, the case of D.B. Cooper happened on November 24, 1971, when a 727-100 was hijacked. The hijacker claimed to have a bomb, demanded $200,000, and four parachutes. After getting his demands he parachuted out of the plane and into pop culture and unsolved mysteries.
The Loki series offered that “D.B. Cooper” was actually Loki who lost a bet with Thor.
There are so many problems with that.
First, hijacking a plane is aircraft piracy. 49 U.S.C. § 46502(A) defines the crime as seizing or exercising control over an aircraft by “force, violence, threat of force or violence, or any form of intimidation, and with wrongful intent.” The punishment is a minimum 20 years and if anyone is killed in the crime, either put to death or imprisoned for life.
A 20-year minimum is a blink of an eye to an Asgardian (or Frost Giant), but sentencing could be modified to account for their long lives.
There is another haunting issue with Loki hijacking a plane…and that it was because he lost a bet to Thor. This raises the issue of a conspiracy to hijack an aircraft, which means Thor and Heimdall could also be prosecuted for the air piracy and Loki taking an explosive device onboard a plane. 49 U.S.C. § 46505.
The lessons from all of this? Make Good life choices. Like don’t hijack airplanes on a bet or invade New York.