Sorry. White cops will be held to a higher standard.
I don’t understand why the charge was 1st degree murder. It wasn’t premeditated.
“I don’t understand why the charge was 1st degree murder. It wasn’t premeditated.”
It was not 1st degree murder.
It was “just” murder, but I guess we’ll never know if it was premeditated - we have only her say-so.
If he was a family member of mine I’d want a murder conviction as well; anything less vindicates the blactivists that claim two different justice systems.
We’ll never know if it was premeditated or not. All we have is her word and that’s not very reliable to many.
How does anyone climb another set of stairs, walk down the hallway seeing a bright red welcome mat that isn’t yours open the door to an apartment that doesn’t look like yours and then blow away a guy who isn’t threatening you without it being intentional?
I might have been swayed to a lesser charge but for that red mat. No way after seeing the police body camera. Bright red. The only color in the hallway.
Local prosecutors ginned up the charges to make black race-baiters happy.
How do you know it was not premeditated? That story about thinking she was in her own apartment is VERY suspect. How do you not notice the furniture and stuff right away? I bet the prosecution took their time ripping up that story.
>> I don’t understand why the charge was 1st degree murder. It wasn’t premeditated. <<
So you go into your apartment and find someone else there. You immediately kill the person and then realize, “Oops! Wrong apartment!” Well, now you have to convince a jury that you were reasonable in killing that person immediately, or else you get charged with manslaughter. But if the jury doesn’t believe the killing was a mistake, why should they believe it was a mistake you went up there in the first place. I’ve lived in apartment buildings and actually went to the wrong door, and the first sign something was amiss snapped me to the reality I was in the wrong place. “Oh wow! There’s someone in my apartment!” “Oh wow, they got all new but used furtiture!” “Oh, wow! They brought a TV for themselves!”
There is no 1st degree / 2nd degree murder charge in Texas. There are only:
Murder
Capital Murder
Manslaughter
Criminally Negligent Homicide
Under Texas law
if you “intentionally or knowingly causes the death of an individual”, it is Murder.
if you “recklessly causes the death of an individual”, it is manslaughter
if you “[cause] the death of an individual by criminal negligence” it is criminally negligent homicide
Capital murder requires aggravating factors (during a burglary or sexual assault, killing a policeman or fireman, etc).
During sentencing, the defendant can try to argue that they were under the “immediate influence of sudden passion arising from an adequate cause” to get it knocked down to a second degree felony.