Friday, August 03, 2007

Murder on the Cheap


I don't get it. You've been found guilty of conspiring to commit murder. That means you and at least one other person get into a conspiracy to murder someone, presumably before the event, which may or may not even follow. Then you are your conspirator(s) do murder someone. It's an Iraqi you suspect of being an insurgent because he's been arrested and released several times before. Then you take this Iraqi out on the street and - bingo - you murder him, kill him dead.

At trial you're convicted of murder but acquitted of premeditated murder.

I don't get it. If you conspired to murder this guy and then took him out on the street and murdered him, what's not premeditated about that? Pre- meditated. Thought out beforehand.

Oh I know. It wasn't "premeditated" because that carries a life sentence. And, after all, the murderer was a US Marine and the unfortunate loser he toasted, who probably deserved what he got anyway, was an Iraqi. That explains it.

The verdict in the case of Marine Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins means he could even be released without serving any additional time.

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