““Federal law defines voluntary manslaughter as the unlawful killing of a human being without malice [u]pon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion.””
I’m pretty sure since murder is a state crime, not Federal, manslaughter is defined by the state not the federal government.
I used the federal definition because it is a bit more clear. The state law simply states, “the unlawful killing of another without malice, express or implied...”
I think it will be hard to prove malice since the shooting comes in direct succession of some sort of altercation (evidenced by flying gear). In other words, the shooting was clearly WRONG but it would be easy to argue that it was a heat of the moment event, not the direct result of malice.
But, bear in mind, my original comments were relying on the assumption that a video posted by another Freeper was the “raw” video, when in fact, it was not. Regardless, I still see this case pleading to [voluntary] manslaughter with a term of 10 years, commuted to 5. That’s the way the system works.