He wasn’t bad. He was clearly hoping for and trying to demonstrate it was manslaughter. It’s all they had given the overwhelming evidence it wasn’t self defense. He was not a public defender. A PD was originally assigned but then they hired this guy who is considered on of the top criminal attorneys in the area. They won’t win an appeal on incompetence of counsel. That is a very heavy burden and is VARY rarely successful.
I'm hardly the perfect parent, but had one of my kids been suspended for the same thing, I'd be checking their backpacks every time they were leaving the house.
About 55 years ago, my parents gave me a beautiful Buck knife, which I kept in a scabbard attached to my belt. Took it to school almost every day, as did 20+ fellow students. Of course, nothing ever happened.
The definition of manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being without express or implied malice. He'd never had been able to prove that Karmelo Anthony didn't have malice in mind when he deliberately drew a knife and stuck it in Sean Metcalf's heart, for simply being asked to leave the tent.
Now I’m wishing I had been watching the trial.