[Filo]

Strange. Earlier, you wrote: “Second-degree murder is ordinarily defined as 1) an intentional killing that is not premeditated or planned, nor committed in a reasonable “heat of passion””

Quoting only half of the definition (which is an either/or one) is a really interesting form of dishonesty.

Bravo.

He thought the taser was necessary.

And a reasonable person, including the other cops, would not. Clearly the two cuffing Grant were surprised that anything at all happened.

This wasn’t murder.

Yes it was. Murder 2, by the book.

Second-degree murder is ordinarily defined as 1) an intentional killing that is not premeditated or planned, nor committed in a reasonable "heat of passion" or 2) a killing caused by dangerous conduct and the offender's obvious lack of concern for human life. Second-degree murder may best be viewed as the middle ground between first-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.

[HiTech RedNeck]

That might even be the most likely explanation, however only a reasonable doubt is necessary to bar a conviction for it. The doubt that says “there is evidence pointing to the possibility that Mehserle was unaware that he had pulled the wrong weapon until it was too late.” Such as Mehserle’s comment to his colleague before the shooting that he was going to use a Taser, and the “d’oh!” gesture immediately after the shooting.

The system that provides (in principle) a margin of error in favor of the peon, did the same for the jackboot. C’est la vie. I’d still sooner be a peon here than in a lot of other places. If something needs to be under particular scrutiny, it is probably not this particular case, but whether there will follow a rash of similar cases. The Taser company IMHO should take Mehserle at face value and hire him as a consultant to make it harder to make that mistake with future models of the Taser.

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“Quoting only half of the definition (which is an either/or one) is a really interesting form of dishonesty.”

I said “So, your definition is down by 50% already”, dumbass. Did you not see that? Either you saw it and are now going to lie about it (I noticed you made no mention of that entire point!) or you’re just a moron.

You wrote:

“Clearly the two cuffing Grant were surprised that anything at all happened.”

Not according to their testimony. They were surprised that there was a gunshot. They were not surprised that the officer wanted to use his taser.