Sad story but the verdict was justified........
No surprise here...This guy was clearly a ding.
Four counts...two people killed?
What’s slightly disturbing in this case, is so many felt what he did was totally reasonable and rational.
It was anything but reasonable and rational.
I am a bit surprised, but a lot of evidence was excluded in this trial. I think a more correct verdict would have been manslaughter. Just my two cents worth.
The two deceased teenagers were going to either die from some irate homeowner, or spend a lot of time in jail as they were involved in multiple felonies with no signs of remorse, nor showed any intention of reforming their behavior.
As for Byron Smith, he seemed to be a bit unbalanced in his plan of action. He had no need to go so far as to execute the perps. Still, he may have been indeed scared for his life and behaving under extreme duress during the actual events. He does belong in jail, however.
Let me guess the composition of the jury.
"Before retiring from the U.S. State Department, Smith worked on technical security issues for American embassies, such as building layout and alarms."
He may have thought he swim away since he was "almost a cop" in his former job.
Now he'll have time to reflect on what he did.
The verdict should have been either one or the other, but not both. The judge’s instructions were faulty. It can’t be both. The jury was supposed to determine guilt or not guilty, and if guilty, degree of guilt. They punted. Ergo, prima facie there is reasonable doubt about guilt. This is eminently appealable.
In the article it states that there were Facebook pictures of Brady with guns. I haven’t seen any of them anywhere on the internet. I would have liked to see them.
The guy is a scumbag, a murderer and deserves to rot in prison for the remainder of his days.
That said, I am having a hard time feeling sympathy for the teens, who, according to the article, were apparently on quite the robbery/home break-in spree. Getting shot dead by a home owner is the risk you take when you break into peoples’ homes.
This is a good verdict. We either believe the law should be applied equally to all or we don’t.
As a juror that would have been my decision. The guy would have been within his rights to shoot the first suspect in fear for his life, but not immediately calling the police, delivering coupe de grace shots and lying in wait for the second person were over the top.
nifong rides again.
This guy is not someone I want on my side of 2nd amendment rights.