Michigan legislative action thread
Posted on 08/07/2014 11:56:28 AM PDT by GIdget2004
A Detroit jury ruled today that Theodore Wafer was guilty of murder in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Renisha McBride on his porch.
The jury, which consists of seven men and five women, began its deliberations on Wednesday after nine days of testimony.
Wafer, 55, is charged with second degree murder and manslaughter for shooting and killing McBride, 19, last November when the teenager showed up inebriated on his porch at 4:40 a.m. Wafer said he could only make out a figure around his house, said the person pounded on his door and made him fear for his life.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I saw just a little of this and tho I usually am all for the homeowner, I just can’t see shooting before you really know anything about what is going on.
Now if she had rushed at him or waved a gun but she was just drunk.
What was the racial breakdown of the jury?
IIRC. 8 white, 4 black
That’s the issue. There was no indication that she intended to do anything more than stand on the porch. I don’t know if that constitutes murder, as defined by the law, but he certainly wasn’t defending himself.
Looking for a visit from the New Black Panthers? LOL
legal insurrection.com has had a running commentary on the trial.
That site had the best coverage of anybody on the Zimmerman trial
Was he offered a plea deal???
Seems to me he was angry and afraid of the door and used a human being as his backstop...
He should’ve fired a warning shot.
I’m normally on the homeowner’s side, too, but I think he pulled the trigger way too fast.
If he’d fired a warning shot and accidentally hit her, that would have been a lower charge... and he may have been doing that, but I wonder if he wasn’t a tad drunk himself.
However, his argument that she was a threat by knocking on his door is way out of line. I don’t think he thought through the consequences of his actions, either because he was elderly and kind of out of it, or perhaps because he was under the influence.
Ooops, he wasn’t that elderly! For some reason, I had him pegged as a 75 yr old, not a 55 yr old.
Less excuse...
Second degree murder, not first. Maybe he has a chance at parole in a few years, assuming he survives his stay in jail.
” his argument that she was a threat by knocking on his door is way out of line.”
She was beating on his door so hard that her hands were swollen. She wasn’t just “knocking.”
I haven’t followed this case, but I’m thinking that at 4:40am in November it’s pretty dark and you can’t see a thing until you turn a light on. If someone came banging on my porch door at that hour (in Detroit, no less) I’d certainly have feared for my life. And I’m not sure I’d have had the patience to wait to see and know what was going on, rather than thinking someone would shoot me first.
That’s why you retreat and wait around the corner for them to come through the door. At that point, blaze away.
People actually have a legal right in most places to knock on your door, even at 4 am.
I totally agree with what you say. Maybe his atty tried and he refused, or maybe there was no plea on offer, as this man was the wrong color to be killing people so carelessly like that.
“I wonder if he wasn’t a tad drunk himself.”
Yes, I said that yesterday on another thread on this. Or maybe just out of it from being woken up.
His big mistake was to continue to live in Detroit. It isn’t possible for a white person to get fair justice in the big US cities.
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