[Ramius]

I think that’s exactly what they did. They filed the charge— and took it up to 2nd degree murder precisely to placate the mobs. I don’t know if they can have manslaughter as a lesser included charge or not, in Florida. But they are probably counting on that as their escape from this madness. The facts just won’t support 2nd degree.

I thought the prosecutor really made a mistake today by getting too far ahead of himself with the “facts” of the case. Juries decide what the facts are, not prosecutors. He came off looking like a fool, and unprepared.

[Ken H]

I don’t know if they can have manslaughter as a lesser included charge or not, in Florida.

I'm not sure either. Does anyone here know?

[ArmstedFragg]

As far as I’m concerned, in this case the “lesser included” should be littering.

[trebb]

I think that’s exactly what they did. They filed the charge— and took it up to 2nd degree murder precisely to placate the mobs. I don’t know if they can have manslaughter as a lesser included charge or not, in Florida. But they are probably counting on that as their escape from this madness. The facts just won’t support 2nd degree. I thought the prosecutor really made a mistake today by getting too far ahead of himself with the “facts” of the case. Juries decide what the facts are, not prosecutors. He came off looking like a fool, and unprepared

Either way, it's a despicable miscarriage of justice to arrest someone for political ends or to "placate the mobs". If the mobs need "placating" it should be done with rubber bullets, fire hoses, mace, etc. If that doesn't work, due to them being "un-placatable", it might be time to consider real bullets. When you give in to scum like this, you set bad precedents 9over and over again) and it eventually becomes the "norm" to screw a good person to "placate" the mobs.