Quote Originally Posted by jmdaniel View Post
Honest question here, and please try to answer it without your escalating levels of snark; it's not a good look.

From the article:

Weisberg, the criminal justice professor, who was not involved in the case, said he was "particularly surprised" that the jury did not convict Garcia Zarate of manslaughter. "It's not improbable to think that the shooting showed a gross kind of negligence," he said.

Weisberg said prosecutors may have had trouble reconciling the first- and second-degree murder charges with the involuntary manslaughter charge. "It could be that they were just in a situation where they couldn't make an argument that the shooting was both accidental and intentional," he said.

I honestly don't know how/why the charges are/were connected; 1st, 2nd, and involuntary. I thought, (and I'm obviously not a lawyer), that juries could consider each charge in isolation. If so, at least in my mind, (but it appears also in others), that it was clear her death occurred at least in part due to careless handling of the gun by the perp. No intent, no malice, just a dumbass with a gun. Thanks for any info you can provide.

I did kinda chuckle when I saw the Feds are after him now. I suspect his treatment here in Texas will be a bit different.
This trial had absolutely nothing to do about Kate Steinle's murder and the guilt of the murderer. It was purely a national political statement on sanctuary state polices and a big F-U to the current administration's secure border policies, nothing more.

SF has run every gun store out of the its city limits. SF is located in the most anti-2A state in the union. CA is home of the 9th Circus Court, the most overturned liberal court in the nation. CA will make any shooting a political anti-2A statement UNLESS they have a more outstanding political statement to make which in this case is sanctuary city policies.

Garcia confessed to going to SF because he knew they would protect him in the sanctuary city. The prosecution is half responsible for choosing the jury. The judge refused to allow the jury to feel for themselves how heavy the trigger pull was. The BLM officer testified he had left his P239 in DA mode which means it was @ 10lbs in DA and if the murder had put it in SA, it would be @ 6lbs. The P239 has no record of drop fire problems so the gun did not fire itself.

The defense used the definition of Involuntary Manslaughter to argue the murder's innocence. Garcia confessed to shooting Kate Steinle. This by itself should have been a confession to Involuntary Manslaughter neither disputed by the defense nor the prosecution, and then was not charged with any death related charges. That right there is a political statement, nothing more, not a murder or accidental death trial.

A little history on California's liberal judges making sanctuary state policies from the bench at the expense of and against the will of the American citizens:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Califo...roposition_187