Daniel Penny found not guilty
(twitter.com)
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Which is an indication that you've totally fucked up your trial. You send an M1 charge to the jury and they deadlock. You send a lesser charge and they acquit.
They're either exceptionally confused or the process was corrupted. The judge should feel deep shame over this result.
He should, but it sounds like he was hunting for a conviction.
In this case their fuck-fuck games backfired on them. If they had left the jury deadlocked it would be a mistrial and they could try again.
By dismissing the murder charge it's over. They can appeal the acquittal of the other charges, but they lost their chance at the murder conviction.
I don't understand the criminally negligent homicide charge at all.
That's like when you fuck up so badly doing something otherwise safe that you kill someone. Like, say, you leave your car in neutral without the parking brake and it rolls down a hill and runs over someone. That's potentially criminal negligence.
Two people fighting and one of them dies is the very definition of "involuntary manslaughter." You did something potentially dangerous and someone actually died because of it. If you're restraining someone and they (don't, but we'll pretend that Neeley did) die, it doesn't even make sense to accuse him of being "negligent." What did he "neglect" to do during the struggle? Ask for his consent?
So in this case, it actually makes sense to me that they could deadlock on manslaughter but dismiss criminal negligence because the negligence charge makes no sense whatsoever.
Like holding someone down on the floor until the cops arrive? The point is, whatever facts lead you to dismiss this, must necessarily lead you to dismiss the larger charge. The subtlety is the prosecution is not allowed to present two different theories but they can present two different charges.
So the jury is confused or they felt the Allen charge was annoying and someone changed their mind.
That's not "negligence" though. You didn't answer my question of, "what did he 'neglect' to do?" Negligence is something you fail to do, not something you did.
If you shoot someone intentionally, you aren't charged with "criminal negligence." You're charged with murder. (and then maybe acquitted for self defense)
The dindu was alive after Penny released him. He died of a drug OD later.