Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Pleads to Punish The Bad Guys at 10

Convicted of manslaughter at 27.
A Boston man who as a child made a plea to Governor William Weld for an end to violence in the city admitted yesterday that he shot a man three times in the back inside a Roxbury car repair shop in 2001, killing him as he ran for his life.
Originally the guy was charged with first degree murder but when the jury up in liberal land couldn't reach a verdict the prosecutor had to plea baragin down to manslaughter. People when you sit on a jury your job is to determine if the defendant is guilty or innocence of the charges against them. That is all. All this hand wringing and playing what if games is pure BS. Leave it up to the judge to determine if the mitigating circumstances warrant a less then maximum sentence. It seems too many juries now a days don't want to go for a guilty verdict out of some misplaced sympathy for the defendant. The defendant, in this case one who admitted to doing the crime, should be afforded no more sympathy then they showed thier victim. That probably goes a long way to explaining to why I may be called to jury duty I never actually get to sit on a case. The lawyers see me in the jury pool and just go for the plea deal.
How long before Boston declares themselves a "Gun-Free Zone" as a method to stop this sort of crime?

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