Ian wrote:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/4297345.stm
>
> She got five year for manslaughter.
>
>
> Imagine a man breaking into a hospital that he'd put him in.
> Imagine him then poisoning him to death.
> Imagine that he'd get away with just manslaughter.
> Imagine that he'd get just five years.
>
> Difficult to imagine isn't it?

It's equally difficult to imagine how a judge and jury could call this
manslaughter and keep a straight face.

Manslaughter is murder without intent.  For example, suppose you get
into a fight with Petrina Stocker of Romford, Essex.  Suppose you pound
the living hell out of her face, and it kills her.  You didn't intend
to kill her, but you did.  Moreover, you knew or should have known that
your actions might kill her.  Ergo, it is manslaughter.

By stark contrast, Ms. Stocker had every intention of killing her son.
She left her home carrying the salt and spoon.  She drove to the
hospital with it, stole into the boy's room like a creature of prey,
and administered the lethal dose without the hospital staff knowing it.
 Not only is that flat-assed murder, it's premeditated murder.  The
evidence of premeditation is insurmountable, and this wasn't even her
first attempt.  The judge all but admitted that she deliberately (ie
with intent) killed her boy.

In Texas, this would be first-degree murder, and she would get the
needle.  How can a judge possibly call it manslaughter, and then give
her a light sentence as well?

The judge let her off lightly because she supposedly felt so guilty for
what she had done.  Bullshit.  She did it over and over again.  Let her
"live the rest of her life with what she had done," but in prison.

Of course,that won't happen.  She'll get out in five years, assuming
she survives the wrath of the other inmates.  Let's hope she doesn't.



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