Wow. The 2nd degree murder statute for Illinois makes little sense to me. Even if the prosecutor establishes all the requirements of 1st degree murder, you get 2nd degree if you convince the juror that “[a]t the time of the killing, he/she believed that the killing would have been lawfully justified but the belief was unreasonable.” So, if you think that all black people have less rights under the law, you’re home free, it doesn’t matter that your belief is stupid and unreasonable! Same if this cop thought they were allowed to execute any suspect. Frankly, I have little doubt that that is exactly what this cop firmly believed. The idiocy is letting that dumb-ass subjective belief be a mitigating factor.
The reason for the second degree is really this wouldn’t meet the First Degree requirement of being premeditated.
That is apprently not the distinction in Illinois. Second-degree murder versus first-degree murder, explained
Note this part (emphasis added): “[Second degree murder] requires jurors to find that the prosecutors have proved all the elements of first-degree murder. Then they must decide whether the defense has shown “it is more probably true than not true” that Van Dyke believed he was justified, but that belief was unreasonable.”
FYI, your link is to the general first degree murder page at Findlaw. Criminal laws are state specific. My 2nd degree murder link was to the specific one for Illinois.
Yeah, I noticed that just now. I ended up clicking around the site, then must have went to the general 1st degree page instead of the IL 1st degree.
it’s not the best verdict but it’s still murder, and he didn’t get away with it. Now he just needs a decent sentence.
And in expected news …
BELLAIRE — The village has hired Timothy Loehmann, a former Cleveland police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice four years ago, as one of two new part-time officers with its police department.
This was grim reading.
I think at least one of these cases has been posted about before, but it’s the numbers that really drive the point home. Jesus Christ.
Unsurprising: the other officer hired that day is another city police chief from Ohio, who is currently suspended and under investigation by the State AG for abuse of police computer resources. Also, the hiring police chief has himself already been reprimanded for losing his temper and shouting profanity at citizens while at work, and had a petition opened to fire him for his bullying tactics. White Male Good Old Boy bullies look after each other.
As these institutions become more racially (and sex) diverse we’ll see (and probably already have) the same behavior regardless of ethnicity, enough to warrant the statement ‘bullies look after each other’ without singling out a particular segment of the human race as if it is any worse than everyone else.
I.e. this is an institutional problem and not one inherit to ‘white;male’, unless you are saying there is something that only a ‘white;male’ would do - in which case, wtf?
So, what you’re saying is All Bullies Matter?
Wait, how is the Texan answer not -> arm the teens to protect themselves?
You want to arm those sorts of people?!
They’ve probably had to watch all sorts of videos in school, one more won’t kill them.
Hilarious.
Amazing WP opinion article.
“Will anything change?”
No.