The ancient Greeks had a sort of punishment for inanimate objects that were involved in a murder. In Athens, any such object was publicly condemned and then thrown beyond Athenian boundaries as a form of punishment. As Plato put it, “If a lifeless thing shall deprive a person of life, provided it may not be a thunderbolt or other missile hurled by a god, but an object which the person may have run against or by which he may have been struck and slain,… the culprit shall be put beyond the boundaries, in the same manner as if it were an animal.”
In one such case, the object was a bust of the poet Theognis, which fell on a man and killed him. In another case, a statue of a famous athlete was knocked over by the fans of his rivals, killing one of them, so the statue was pitched into the sea… after a proper trial, of course.
Source:
Stephens, John Richard. “Ignorance and Intelligence.” Weird History 101: Tales of Intrigue, Mayhem, and Outrageous Behavior. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2006. 122-23. Print.
Further Reading:
Aren't we doing that in a way, with this gun control fracas going on?