Oy, how ilogical can this get?
If it wasn't a direct homicide, but she placed him in the situation, knowing full well what the risks are then it is a criminally negligent homicide.There can be no "criminally negligent homicide" without a death!
If not for Chakotay, there would have been. She was intentionally going to cause that. The fact that Lessing didn't die just changes it to attempted murder.
The fissure was open, Lessing was seconds away from death, her plan was a failure.
We don't know that because Chakotay put a stop to it. Would Lessing have betrayed his captain? Janeway apparently believed that anyone who would stoop to genocide simply to get home faster would have no moral qualms about that but Chakotay believed otherwise. Fpr all we know Chakotay was right and Janeway would have ended up caving to avoid killing him but this is all conjecture because LESSING DID NOT DIE.
Lessing was seconds away from Death, Janeway is a good Captain but she can not bring back the dead. She was standing there and letting the situation go forth, he was a dead man at Janeways hands.
"Obsession" and "Equinox" were totally different situations.
Kirk wanted revenge against the cloud monster and Janeway wanted revenge against Raonsom. Both crossed the line in the quest for revenge and both were pulled back by those who worked for them. Seems pretty similar to me...
Kirk went after the creature A because of his personal feelings but B because it was a danger to the area.
Janeway went after Ransom with so much drive and determination solely because of her personal feelings. While the command choice that would have led to less danger ivolved finding a way to appease the aliens first, she stayed on the course to Ransom. Sounds pretty different to me...
And can we start using proper vocabulary about this subject? People keep calling the actions of the Equinox genocide. It wasn't genocide. The weren't committing genocide, they were serial killers.