First of all you need to learn to read about this case.
1. The officers thought the perp was armed.
2. The officers did not know he was a mule at the time of the shooting. Drugs found afterwards.
3. They did not know the perp was hit by their gunfire.
These convictions will be overturned on appeal because of jury manipulation by the foreman.
At retrial the officers will be found innocent or there may not need to be another retrial.
The judge needs to be transferred to Bangor, Maine and the prosecuting attorney needs to be transferred to the Aleutian Islands.
You need to get over it.
I actually did research the case. That the perp was armed was their claim, however, after being shot at at least fifteen times, the guy never fired back.
It was brought up that they later found the weed in the van. That made their offense worse..as far as they knew, they were shooting at just a wetback.
They didn't know they hit the mule, but they knew they were in the wrong....picking up the spent shotgun shells they could find on the site, and then going back to find the rest and throw them away showed they tried to cover it up.
Neither you nor I were on the jury. They convicted these guys, not GWB or the prosecutor. The gun law that gave them the stiff sentence was probably supported at the time it was passed by the majority of conservatives.
Just the law of unintended consequences. By the way, they turned down an 18 month plea deal.