Free Republic

Henry Graham, a 52-year-old man with a lengthy arrest record who killed a man with a single punch on the Magnificent Mile, was sentenced to nine years in prison on Friday, months after a judge found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter, saying state law barred him from being convicted of murder. The state’s “one punch” legal standard that spared Graham a murder conviction may surprise many, but it is well established in Illinois, where nearly a century of case law holds that a person cannot reasonably expect a single punch to kill someone. Therefore, in almost all cases, a person...

Sheridan hockey coach Patrick Mudd died over the weekend, after he was allegedly "sucker punched" in a parking lot outside of the Sheridan WYO rodeo. The hockey community laid their sticks outside his home in mourning. =============================================================== A Sheridan man faces up to 20 years in prison, accused of punching a man so hard he died after a parking argument. Cody Joseph McCalla, 33, was charged with involuntary manslaughter Monday in Sheridan Circuit Court. The charge follows a fight Friday outside the local rodeo in Sheridan, in which McCalla punched local hockey coach and player Patrick Mudd so hard, Mudd...

Thomas, above, died after being struck with one punch. On December 21st, just before Christmas, there occurred a tragic example of a one punch homicide.  It seems clear that the homicide was unintentional, as the victim agreed to be hit.   Both young men were at a party and appear to have been drinking.  From khou.com: Before the fight, the two shook hands and smoked a cigarette together, witnesses told sheriff's deputies. Thomas, who apparently hit a car that the suspect was sitting in, agreed to let Galen hit him. But Galen hit Thomas so hard that he fell backward...

 A judge in Alabama shows an example of both the deadly danger of a punch, disparity  of force, and the changes that ubiquitous cameras are bringing to the justice system.   It is also interesting how misleading the early reporting was.  From video evidence later on, it was clear that there was no fight.  One man was attacked, and responded to the attack.  It is clear that some people tried to fit this into the "progressive elite" model of murder.  From the Original article: Detectives learned the victim got into a fight with another male. During the fight, Murray was...

On Sunday, Bob Mette and his son, Mike, 30, will go to the game at Soldier Field to watch the Bears play the Lions. On Monday, Bob will drive Mike to Iowa, to prison. Mike Mette, until recently a Chicago police officer, is scheduled to begin serving a 5-year prison sentence. His crime? According to the judge's ruling, Mike threw one punch at an angry drunk who chased Mike down the street and attacked him verbally, physically, repeatedly. The drunk is fine now, golfing, having attended college in Dubuque. The last time I checked he was adding to his resume...