KS_to_CA
Regular Member
imported post
Not the whole story, just some quotes. BUt here it is for those interested:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jun/27/lawyers-jurors-tend-back-cops/?metro&zIndex=123527
Juries don't want to convict these guys,” Collins said. “And they tell you that in a hurry. Cops are seen as heroes by a lot of people.”
White shot and wounded Rachel Silva and her son, Johnny, 8. She had angrily pursued him into a parking lot after he had honked at her after she cut him off.
William Braniff, a former U.S. attorney and defense attorney who is now retired as a lawyer, represented Chaney. Much like White's lawyer Rick Pinckard did, Braniff focused jurors on the quick decision Chaney had to make in a life-threatening situation.
“He's being judged on a split-second decision,” he said. Neither officers provoked the conflict, Braniff said.
“In both these cases, though . . . they were put in a situation where they were otherwise without fault,“ he said. “The escalation was not because of anything they did.”
“The nut of our case is even though Rachel Silva may have been behaving in an impolite or belligerent way,“ he said, “emptying a gun into a car as it is moving away and shooting an unarmed woman and 8-year-old boy is entirely unreasonable.”
HERE'S THE QUESTION:
Had the shooter been a civilian and acting on seld-defense, would jurors agree that he/she was making split-second decision?
Not the whole story, just some quotes. BUt here it is for those interested:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jun/27/lawyers-jurors-tend-back-cops/?metro&zIndex=123527
Juries don't want to convict these guys,” Collins said. “And they tell you that in a hurry. Cops are seen as heroes by a lot of people.”
White shot and wounded Rachel Silva and her son, Johnny, 8. She had angrily pursued him into a parking lot after he had honked at her after she cut him off.
William Braniff, a former U.S. attorney and defense attorney who is now retired as a lawyer, represented Chaney. Much like White's lawyer Rick Pinckard did, Braniff focused jurors on the quick decision Chaney had to make in a life-threatening situation.
“He's being judged on a split-second decision,” he said. Neither officers provoked the conflict, Braniff said.
“In both these cases, though . . . they were put in a situation where they were otherwise without fault,“ he said. “The escalation was not because of anything they did.”
“The nut of our case is even though Rachel Silva may have been behaving in an impolite or belligerent way,“ he said, “emptying a gun into a car as it is moving away and shooting an unarmed woman and 8-year-old boy is entirely unreasonable.”
HERE'S THE QUESTION:
Had the shooter been a civilian and acting on seld-defense, would jurors agree that he/she was making split-second decision?