Knife found buried at OJ Simpson estate, report

[happyslug]

55. OJ was charged with both Murder and Manslaughter

Last edited Mon Mar 7, 2016, 04:38 PM - Edit history (1)

But OJ's defense team presented the judge the argument that the defense for either conflicted with each other. With the murder charge intent and premeditation would be the issues, in a manslaughter charge premeditation was not an issue. In a manslaughter case intent is still needed to be shown, but intent to scare someone would have been sufficient. I.e. No need to prove OJ intended to kill the victims, just that OJ had killed them with intent to do some harm.

Shirapo convinced the Judge the two charges were incompatible and one of them had to be dropped. The judge gave that choice to the prosecution who opted for murder. I do abuse work, but PFAs not criminal charges, but keep abreast of other aspects of abuse. In almost all cases of death do to abuse it is manslaughter not murder for killing the victim was NEVER the intent of the abuser. No intent to kill, no premeditation, no murder. On the other hand the abuse that caused the death was intended to cause some harm to the victim and thus enough intent to justify a manslaughter conviction.

Given the choice between murder and manslaughter the DA should have opted for murder, but the DA thought this was the case to get him elected judge, so he decided on murder. The assistant DAs doing the actual trial work also saw this as a high profile case that they could ride to higher positions, thus also agreed with the murder charge. When the jury said it was NOT murder, it goes back blew up in their faces, the DA lost the next election.