Police Execution?

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by firstdown

Here is what stood out to me in this article.

Voluntary Manslaughter only up to 9 years in jail.
Involuntary Manslaughter he could only get probation.

If he is found guilty and gets just a few years in jail they better call out the national guard. I just don't understand how you can kill someone ending their life and if its not 1st degree murder its just a slap on the hand.

Because laws and sentencing guidelines aren't made to fit specific situations. They are made to fit general situations. In many cases voluntary manslaughter is reasonably punished by 9 years in prison.

I think the bigger debate is whether it is manslaughter or murder. I think it is probably a tough sell legally as murder since it'd be very hard to prove he drew, pointed and fired with the intent to kill, completely unprovoked. The situation as murky as the details are is still clearly one of chaos and one can reason that the officer was responding(rationally or not it doesn't matter) to the dangers presented him. That's manslaughter pretty much. If he drew thinking it was his taser and fired then it is involuntary manslaughter. It all comes down to his state of mind which is going to be hard to prove. If they go for murder they have to prove he meant to kill the victim and had no loss of reasonable state of mind(ie, crime of passion or a provoked crime). Otherwise he gets off scott free. A jury can't consider a murder charge and decide it was manslaughter. A laywer could explain this much better.