re: #573 lostlakehiker

Ah, you underestimate me. What I’m wishing for is a lot more than that. But we’ll see as to how the trial, the verdict, and the sentencing go. I’ve put in my bracket.

It’s the barrage of shots that gives the prosecution a case for premeditation. But yeah, I do see a problem there. If the cop were willing to plea bargain down to murder 2, the prosecution might accept it because of the likely difficulty of getting a jury to see it their way on murder 1.

Arguing for the prosecution, I’d say that one or two shots you could think were fired in a sudden rage, but not eight. And if memory isn’t playing tricks on me, at least one of them after the man started going down.

A civilian who emptied his clip at somebody for no very good reason might explain about the stress of the moment and it all happened so fast etc., but cops are trained in the use of firearms. It would be almost automatic to count, to assess damage and reassess threat, etc. The defendant cop can’t expect to be believed in the same way a naive civilian might be.

And that’s the key word right there, what his lawyer is going to use to get him off on a lesser charge, arguing that he did what he was “trained” to do, that he can’t be punished for doing something his superiors say he’s supposed to do. That we as society expect him to do as he’s trained, but now want to punish him for carrying it out.