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# System prepended metadata

title: '**Hopewell County New Life Rule**'

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# **Hopewell County New Life Rule**
Last updated: October 25th, 2022

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This document serves as the overarching guidelines on Hopewell Countys’s New Life Rule (NLR), when it applies and when it doesn’t, and includes some common examples of whether it applies in certain scenarios in the experience.

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## Section I. - Overview
### **Under Rule 2 of the Melrose Experience Rules, the NLR is set out that:**

The overarching rule is that when a person dies in the commission of a crime, which includes fleeing from law enforcement, their death acts as a reset as if they had never committed the crime; common sense will have to be applied in each situation.

The Experience does not allow for players to kill themselves or be killed by other people to effectuate a ‘New Life’, as this will not result in the player being covered by this rule.


Given its generalization, it is expected that the onus will be on Law Enforcement Officers to determine whether the NLR applies in any given situation. Naturally, this means that there may be several instances where conflict originates between the fleeing party and the police as to whether the rule applies. This is where Moderation will step in and determine whether the NLR has been followed correctly.

In cases where the NLR has not been followed, any arrests or seizures of tools made where the NLR was incorrectly applied will be considered void and undone by an Administrator (proof being necessary when returning firearms/illegal tools), and the Police Officer(s) in question will be educated as to where they went wrong, and their example added to the list below.

This rule will be an integral part of IPS (Institue of Public Safety) training, so the persistent incorrect application of the NLR will be flagged as a failure to be dealt with by an Administrator in conjunction with IPS staff.

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## Section II. - Examples of the New Life Rule

### The police are in pursuit of two suspects who have been witnessed murdering another player. The chase ends in a firefight where both suspects are killed by the police.
Does the New Life Rule apply?

*  Yes - Suspects have died in the commission of a crime, and after a pursuit following the murder of another player.


### A suspect pulls a gun in a shop in full view of a police officer, but before any action can be taken another civilian kills the suspect.
Does the New Life Rule apply?

 * Yes - Suspect has died in the commission of a crime.


### A suspect has fled the police, and a search is underway. 15 minutes later the suspect engages in further criminal activity and is killed by another criminal during a gunfight.
Does the New Life Rule apply?

* No - Suspect was not killed by a police officer trying to apprehend the person in the commission of an offense.


### A suspect flees from the police and is killed by other players unrelated to their pursuit.
Does the New Life Rule apply?

* No - Suspect was not killed by a police officer, or by a civilian aiding the police.


### During a chase, a suspect is shot by a friend, and the police see their death notification. They are subsequently arrested but the suspect claims NLR since they died.
Does the New Life Rule apply?

* No - Suspect was not killed by a police officer trying to apprehend the person in the commission of an offense.


### A suspect jumps from a significant height, resulting in their death, claiming NLR upon being arrested.
Does the New Life Rule apply?

* No - A suspect cannot kill themselves to effectuate the New Life Rule.


### A police officer dies but continues to pursue the suspect, eventually arresting them. The suspect claims NLR applies since the police officer's death 'reset' their knowledge of a crime taking place.
Does the New Life Rule apply?

* No - Player memory does not get ‘wiped’ by the New Life Rule; once a crime is committed the only way to avoid arrest is to die in the commission of, or evading police capture in relation to, that crime (This excludes warrants seeing as a warrant is a Experience fucntion).


### A suspect is in the back of a police car on their way to being booked. A random person comes along and kills them.
Does the New Life Rule apply?

* No - A suspect cannot be killed by others to effectuate the New Life Rule.

### A suspect dies in a gunfight, and the police search their vehicle under reasonable suspicion of other illegal weapons being in the vehicle. The vehicle is respawned, can the police still find and apprehend that person?
Does the New Life Rule apply?

* Yes/No - Police can search the vehicle of someone they have killed in the commission of a crime with probable cause. If that vehicle gets respawned then they must apply for a warrant to be able to conduct a search, unless that player subsequently commits further offences warranting the searching of their vehicle.


### A suspect leaves the experience after the commission of a crime. They rejoin the experience 15 minutes later and claim NLR.
Does the New Life Rule apply?

* No - Players cannot rejoin or leave the experience to escape legal consequences. If the player does not rejoin the experience for a lengthy period, the police may decide to pass the case on to the District Attorney / Department of Justice and have the case proceed through the courts.

* Yes - If the player does not rejoin the experience during the presence of the officers involved (not including joining a different server to avoid arrest which would fall under Rule 1), and those officers fail to pass on the case to the District Attorney / Department of Justice, then the crime is considered voided.

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## Section III. - Enforcement

#### Administrators and Moderators have the right to enforce the NLR rule if it is applied to any of the exmaples above, this rule is meant to keep a sense of realism to the experience. 
#### This rule is punishable by a kick or ban from the experience depending on the severity and past moderation history.

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:::info
discord.gg/melrose
:::

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Edited 10/25/22 - FederalProsecutor