[Rodney King]

"The full responsibility for this would have been the death sentence," said Emily Lyons.

Emily is obviously a product of the public schools. Why "would have been"?

[drjimmy]

Emily is obviously a product of the public schools. Why "would have been"?

I see you got right to the meat of this story. Thanks for pointing out this important detail. I bet if we listened to her some more, she'd start talking about "strategery" and "nukular" stuff to prove even more so how stupid she is.

[Gone GF]

"Emily is obviously a product of the public schools. Why "would have been"?"

Actually, this sounds like the subjunctive mood or a conditional phrase, sort of like "I wish I were a pro athlete." Many people say "I wish I was a pro athlete," which is incorrect.

It appears to me that Emily's grammar is correct -- or at least acceptable -- here. She thinks the proper sentence for him is death, but that's not what he got.