involuntary manslaughter Options

[*futura*]

A jury found former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle guilty Thursday of involuntary manslaughter, concluding that he did not intend to kill train rider Oscar Grant when he shot him in the back on New Year's Day 2009 but acted so recklessly that he showed a disregard for Grant's life.

The verdict was an all-but-unprecedented instance of a police officer being convicted for an on-duty shooting. But it deeply disappointed Grant's relatives, who said the video-recorded shooting was a murder and that Mehserle deserved a sentence years longer than the one he is likely to receive.

"My son was murdered," said Wanda Johnson, Grant's mother, outside the downtown Los Angeles courthouse where the trial was moved to escape heavy publicity in the Bay Area. "He was murdered and the law has not held the officer accountable."

The jury also found that Mehserle, 28, had used a gun during the crime. In all, he could be sentenced to five to 14 years in prison.

[full story]

Anyone have thoughts about this?

[karmakiller]

I'd imagine that the family tried their hardest not to watch the news, because they kept playing the tape over and over. I honestly do not understand how an officer mistakes a handgun for a taser. In my opinion, if that wasn't caught on tape the other officers who were there probably would have covered for the officer. If it was an honest mistake, then he must be the dumbest cop anyone's ever met.