Q. When is murder not murder?

[dev_null]

A. When it's in the UK, apparently.

Note the actual plea in this case...


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/3004275.stm

Teen shot dead by ex-boyfriend


A teenage girl who was shot dead at her home in Cardiff was killed by an ex-boyfriend. Amie Miles, 17, was shot through the heart as she returned to her Grangetown bedsit from her late-night job as a barmaid in July 2002. Raymond Burrell, 25, pleaded guilty of manslaughter at Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday. Four other men also appeared, charged with conspiracy and with assisting an offender.

Burrell, from Butetown, admitted manslaughter on grounds of gross negligence and admitted illegally having a handgun in his possession.

Amie's family was in tears during the court hearing.

Prosecutor Peter Murphy said that forensic scientists indicated the shot had been fired within one metre of Amie.

- end -

 

[El Tejon]

dev, what makes you think that this does not happen every single day in the US???

How do you know this is murder anywho?

 

[4v50 Gary]

"Murder, after all, is an extroverted suicide." - Monty Python

In the U.S., laying in wait, deadly weapon doctrine, lack of justification (self defense or defense of others), no heat of passion defense, makes it moider, plain & simple.

 

[El Tejon]

Gary, not always. Just because the Crown charges you with it, doesn't mean you did it.

Anywho I fail to see how this is representative of the UK only.

 

[agricola]

the nature of his conviction suggests that this was an "accident" when some fools were showing off.

it wouldnt be murder in the US either - murder is taking a life with malice aforethought, no intention to kill or maim means no murder

 

[TallPine]

I'm sure he was just cleaning the gun when it "went off"

 

[dev_null]

Well, let's see: She was either accosted or stalked on the way home from work in the middle of the night, and shot from a couple of feet away, in the heart, by a boyfriend she had jilted... and he pleads negligence? Puh-lease.

Sure, if I were called to jury duty on this I'd go in with an open mind, but from this chair it looks to me like BS.

-0-

 

[El Tejon]

dev, yes, he PLED. That means the Crown agreed that the evidence did not support murder but rather manslaughter, no?

From a news story of a few paragraphs, don't think we have everything. If the evidence did support murder or even depraved heart, they would/could have tried the case on the top count instead of pleading it.

 

[agricola]

el tejon,

exactly.

 

[Navy joe]

On another tangent:

Amie's family was in tears during the court hearing.

Had they been there for here earlier maybe she wouldn't have been a 17 yr old girl working til last call in a bar and living alone running around with older undesirables. Maybe they would have never had to come to her killer's trial...

 

[agricola]

that really is too much. a girl working two jobs and trying to stand on her own two feet is turned into a victim of parental neglect on the basis of one report.

would you rather she was at home on benefits?

 

[dev_null]

ET: point taken.

-0-

 

[Sergeant Bob]

A teenage girl who was shot dead at her home in Cardiff was killed by an ex-boyfriend.

That raises some red flags now doesn't it?

Raymond Burrell, 25, pleaded guilty of manslaughter at Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday.

O.K?

Four other men also appeared, charged with conspiracy and with assisting an offender.
Two other men have been found guilty of assisting an offender.

Conspiracy to commit manslaughter?

A friend gave her a lift home but, within minutes of dropping her off, a single gunshot rang around the street.

Sounds as if they were laying in wait.

Sure sounds like murder to me. Given that likely the only witnesses were the perpetrators , it appears that their credibility outweighs the available evidence.
Sure, it happens all the time but, it doesn't mean it's not murder.

 

[agricola]

sergeantbob,

that should read "outweighs the available evidence contained within this one report".

also nowhere does it state that the conspiracy was one of manslaughter (or even murder). in fact, later on it states the two men who were cleared were cleared of conspiring to pervert the course of justice - which would almost certainly relate the defendants behaviour after the shooting but prior to arrest (the two men who remain charged are also under conspiracy and assisting an offender)