[xzins]

If it isn't eligible for the death penalty or life imprisonment, it shouldn't be called murder. It should be some form of homicide. Different words don't make anyone feel any better, but they do clarify that a difference is involved.

If I kill someone in an auto accident in which I'm the cause of the accident, that is not murder; it is homicide.

I'm not sure how they decide what to call murder and what they call manslaughter or homicide.

If someone can get a 7 year sentence for murder, then it never should have been called murder in the first place. If it is murder and someone can get a 7 year sentence for it, then the society is sick.

[thoughtomator]

The society is sick, mate. The seven years is the average factoring in parole and early release (since we're too busy stuffing our prisons with drug users and dealers to have any room for murderers).

The difference between murder and manslaughter is intent (homicide covers both, as well as justified killing in self-defense). Premeditation makes the difference between first- and second-degree murder. Meanwhile, thanks to mandatory minimums, people are serving 20 years+ for drug trafficking while murderers go free.

We supply more than enough resources for our justice system and our prisons to do the job society needs. The majority of those resources are wasted on the futile and pointless War on Drugs.