Did Wal-Mart ad commit Black Friday murder?

NO! idiots committed this crime!

you have gotta be kiddin me.
i can't stand wally-world any more than the next guy, but you're crazy if you think it's walmarts' fault for running an ad that invites people to come shop at their store, that got some poor guy got trampled by a bunch of clowns?
the fault lies 100% with the obama voters who stepped on this guy...plain and simple.
walmart is guilty of alot...like creating and fostering a system that forced millions of manufacturing jobs off-shore to countries that hate USA (think china).
i'm sorry...only an obama fan would see that ad and think they had to bum-rush a door to buy a f-ing Ipod.

and another thing...
just 'cause a lawyer says walmart is liable doesnt make it right. we have lawyers running our government and there aint a damned thing right about that.
find everyone of the murderers that stepped on this guy and sue the hell out of them. that's the only way to end this kind of problem. suing walmart wont do sh*t to stop these animals from thinking it's ok to act this way.
how about a little personal responsibility?
dont get me wrong, i hate walmart and wouldnt defend them...but in this case blame belongs where it belongs...and not inside the deep pockets of a company identified by a bunch of dirtbag shark lawyers.

Regardless of your opinion on the legal responsibility of Wal-Mart, how on earth can you make this partisan? People like you, who make sweeping generalizations, buy into two party politricks and lambast others who have no relevancy to this issue, are the same kind of people who trampled this guy to death. Grow up, or if you are already old, give up. No one cares what your flapping gums have to say anyway.

This is absurd. Why not put the effort into prosecuting all the sorry excuses for human beings that trampled the poor guy. They should all be arrested and convicted for involuntary manslaughter. The family should be compensated but at the expense of those responsible, not Wal-Mart

If a company advertises an event and then does not have a plan to ensure the safety of the people who attend that event - they are at fault. Walmart was warned by local officials that there would be problems, as there were the year before. This store took no action to help prevent injuries due to the crowds their advertising brought. Of course the people doing the damage should be sought, but Walmart is responsible for not ensuring the safety of their workers!

Not true. Wal Mart had hired additional security from an outside business and they had contacted law enforcement twice prior to the opening of the store. The second time the police arrived, was only 30 minutes prior to the man's death and the police said everything looked alright to them as they were leaving.
Wal Mart took sufficient preemptive action IMHO, they hired extra security and contacted the police when they had doubts about the safety of the crowd. If the police say they are okay, who else are they supposed to ask? Despite my personal views on Wal Mart's business practices, they sufficiently tried to avoid this catastrophe.
The people that need to be held responsible are the shoppers that acted in complete disregard for other's safety.

First of all this has nothing to do with Obama winning the presidency. Whoever made that statement does not know what is probative and what is not and is simply a sour grapes person. The add by Wal-mart was to shop and not to tear down doors and stomp an employee to death. The employee's death actually comes under worker's compensation, because he was on the job regarding Wal-mart when killed. With regard to those shoppers that can be identified, thay face criminal charges and also liability charges for their actions that were not controlled by Wal-mart. Nothing about this story has anything to do with politics but rather crazed shoppers and their greed.

Here are my thoughts from a legal point of view. I am not an attorney in NY so this is all based on general criminal and tort prinicpals not NY law. Also, this is not intended to be legal advice so don't rely on any of it in your personal lives.

First: this post is quite confusing. Is the "legal theory" you are talking about criminal murder as the title suggests or wrongful death negligence as the civil suit mentioned suggests?

If criminal murder, there is no chance that Walmart or any of its executives will be found guilty. To be found guilty for the commission of most crimes the perpetrator must have the requisite mental state. Since corporations are not humans and cannot think, they generally can not be convicted of a crime. As for the executives, the mental state required for murder (first or second degree) is intent. An intent to kill or an intent to cause grave bodily harm. There is no chance that Walmart execs cooked up this advertisement with the intent that it result in the death of an employee.

If by murder you mean involuntary manslaughter, while a better case can be made against the execs, it is unlikely given the steps Walmart took to ensure that the premises were safe (as noted by a previous commenter). Involuntary manslaughter requires gross negligence, so even if Walmart was negligent in not doing more, it probably would not arise to the gross negligence required for involuntary manslaughter.

If the legal theory is negligence it is more likely that Walmart can be found liable but definitely not a sure thing. The complicating factor here is that Walmart did not directly cause the employee's death and took steps to prevent such a situation by hiring extra security and calling the police to inspect the premises It was the unlawfulness (breaking and entering, trespassing) of its customers that caused the death. If the family can show that the criminal acts by its customers were a foreseeable result of the advertisement, they can still recover. Given that Walmart probably didn't do anything different this year and the fact that something like this has never happened before it's going to be pretty difficult for the family to prove foreseeability.

This case will never make it to trial as Walmart will settle as soon as they possibly can.

As for the customers: A slew of criminal convictions (for the employee's death) will be unlikely since once the doors came off, the people at the front had little choice to do anything but go forward. Once the crowd starts going forward there was no stopping it even if someone (or everyone) wanted to stop and help the man get up. Walmart can and will press charges against the ones who tore the doors off since they were in effect trespassing on Walmart's property. This will result in simple misdemeanor convictions. It is highly unlikely that any of the customers intended to kill the man (murder is out). None of them likely committed a felony by entering Walmart (felony murder is out). Again involuntary manslaughter or misdemeanor homicide (depending on whether NY recognizes such a crime) is the best option for those who actually tore the doors off since they could have foreseen that their actions would result in a stampede that would put the lives of Walmart workers and other customers at risk. Whether this qualifies as gross negligence sufficient to support an involuntary manslaughter conviction will be a close call for the jury. Some states allow for conviction of misdemeanor manslaughter when a death results during the commission of certain misdemeanors. Depending on the existence of the law in NY and how it is written in the state this type of law could allow for a criminal homicide conviction for those who tore the doors off the store.

A lawsuit won't bring the poor guy back,,but china mart should step up and do the right thing and compensate the man's family..As for the rest of the greedy bastards that trampled on him,they obviously have no respect for anyone but their own asses,they should burn in hell.They should change the name to "get the Fuck out of my way or I'll kill you to save a dollar with my credit card I'm never paying off., Day",,, ,that's why America is the way it is today...God help us..

That figures another family looking for the golden ticket. They see a big chain store and think Money. I really cant see how the family can be that money hungery, but isnt that the american way in this decade. (Screw who ever you can for personal gain) Shame on the family they need to be greiving not looking for a FREE ride. If you want justice try to find who did it, not looking for who can pay the most.

Yes it does tie in with Obama the same people that voted for him and now run over people to buy a real bargain are all thinking of themselves and not like our old time Americans. It was the young not religious kids that voted for Obama and the hand me out free programs and uneducated people that voted for him so now the smart Christian people would not had pushed and killed anyone they would had helped so examine our country. A percentage of Americans only out for themselves. I looked at that ad and I didn't want any thing I saw. There will be plenty of bargains after Christmas. But that was terrible running over a woman and killing a man. I would guess none looked back. Wal-Mart is not responsible. Responsible only for buying that junk from China.

People keep saying only in America. This only happened in Long Island, NY. I am a Wal-Mart Associate and have been for 9 years and have worked at 4 different stores. Never have I seen anything near this carelessness, It gets crazy on Black Friday with so many people in the store and you get arguments, but never any violence. So I would not say Americans or even New Yorkers as I am sure there are more stores than just that one. That area needs to take a serious look at itself.