I have been posting on Quora about my belief that George Floyd's torturer should be charged with Murder-1 or Murder-2. I heard all kinds of educated lectures as to why Murder-3 was the correct charge. I was ridiculed for not understanding how laws are interpreted as I advocated for Murder-1 and Murder-2 charges. Yet suddenly we are at Murder-2.
The biggest worry those who have studied the law have was originally covered in this petition's first draft, but I removed all three paragraphs before publishing the Murder-1 or Murder-2 Petition out of concern that it was too much backstory at the front of a Petition, frankly, it read like a lecture. The established legal concern is as the charges get "tougher" some or many are worried it might result in not being able to get a 12-0 conviction, or, a judge may not want to create a precedent setting ruling in regards to the definition of premeditated, and in essence be seen as being "above the law". These are very valid concerns, however...
Murder-3 was originally the compromise, and a week later we are now at Murder-2, something many felt was impossible.
So what is the case for Murder-1? Some legal experts believe so far nothing has been discovered to warrant pre-meditation by George Floyd's torturer. Most legal experts believe that if a person has no intention of murdering someone prior to coming in contact with that person, then there is no way to charge pre-meditation or murder-1. I believe this apparently sound logic does not fit the narrative surrounding George Floyd's torture death.
The key issue for Murder-1 charges are the timespan of 9 minutes. Most controversial decisions involving police officers result from split second decisions that generate an instant, lethal reaction, and therefore pre-mediation is not considered. Even cases that seem to be grossly negligent or the officer should have known better, most of the time there is a flash point moment and the officer has to make a split second decision, thus pre-meditation, Murder-1 charges, are usually avoided.
What makes the George Floyd case different is even if there was a flash point moment, such as an alleged struggle inside the police vehicle that resulted in Mr. Floyd tumbling to the ground outside of the police vehicle, which then resulted in pinning Mr. Floyd to the ground, there would now be a six to seven minute window of time for the police officer to decide his next course of action.
Once Mr. Floyd was on the ground and had stopped struggling, it was up to the officer to come up with his next plan of action. The officer had everything he needed, he had back-up, handcuffs on Mr. Floyd, Mr. Floyd on his stomach, and he had witnesses who would have corroborated if upon relenting Mr. Floyd had attempted to get away.
In shorter phrasing...Once Mr. Floyd was on the ground and was no longer struggling, it was up to the Police Officerto meditate his next decision.
Legal experts get so caught up in what pre-meditation means they forget to examine what meditation is. if there is no meditation occurring, then the officer is acting in a pre-meditated state of mind, it's really that straight forward.
When we then add in all the voices, including Mr. Floyd's, that were begging for Mr. Floyd's torturer to relent, and the police officer did not acknowledge anyone but what was already in his own mind, he became pre-meditated.
This is not normally possible in 99% of controversial cases where there is a split second moment of decision. Mr. Floyd's torturer had anywhere from 60 seconds to 420 seconds after Mr. Floyd was not resisting to contemplate a new course of action, and instead chose to ignore a rising chorus of voices and stay in his pre-meditated state of mind.
In my next update I will examine what could happen if a Murder-1 charge were to result in a not guilty verdict. A not guilty verdict regarding a Murder-1 charge could still result in the striking down of a 38 year old law that may be the cornerstone reason why minorities may not be getting a fair shake within the legal justice system.
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