this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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The scenario is this: the murder took place in 1950 (when the internet was non existent at all) and the perpetrator is alive but at 105 years old meaning he would've been around 29 when they killed someone but back then there's no CCTV or forensic evidence, so the case went cold.

Now, with social media: although limited, the only way is a live streamed confession from his death bed at a nursing home for a crime he's committed from a previous generation (76 years ago) admitting to their Gen Z grandchildren they killed an innocent person.

However, the evidence is expired as the body has decomposed long ago, all potential forensic clues are lost for eternity. The victim's family is deceased as this happened long ago, the only ones alive are the victim's grandchildren and descendants whom one can speak to.

The perpetrator is now someone's grandpa, however since this occurred before Gen Z were born (they can only read archived files from that era and work with that). Since there was no social media when the murder took place, you only have his confession video recorded today.

Even with him confessing that he murdered someone that long ago: should he still serve time in prison despite him now being a gray haired old man who looks like he could be your grandfather? Knowing that he'll pass away soon enough, is it even worth a prison sentence?

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[โ€“] Soulcreator@programming.dev 2 points 6 hours ago

There are so many details I have to ask, is this for a creative writing session, or are you asking based on a real life situation?

That said, your question is oddly phrased as I'm not entirely sure of the relevance of gen z or social media. But at its core it sounds like you are asking are death bed confessions prosecutable?

According to Google yes it's technically possible. But in the scenario you are discussing, where someone is potentially in hospice or in a hospital death bed confessing a crime at an extremely old age, I suspect nothing much would happen.

Often legal issues take a long time for anything to happen, they would have to reopen a case, start an investigation, see if they can find corroborating evidence, ect. Depending on the situation all they would have to go on all they might have is the confession itself and it may be difficult to prove this wasn't some kind of confabulation of dementia.

Assuming they moved forward and the individual made it to trial (which very often can take many years), it's doubtful that you would be able to find a jury willing to convict a 105+ year old person based upon potentially thin evidence.

So yes it's technically possible, but I'm not sure it would be a worthwhile use of judicial resources and suspect it would very likely be swept under the rug.

[โ€“] RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

There's a real situation that fits this. A major racial incident in 1955 Mississippi. The killers were acquitted by an all white jury. The woman who had accused Emmett Till in the first place, on her death bed said she made some of the story up. She basically caused a lynching.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till