Free Republic

ST. FRANCISVILLE, La., Sept. 7 -- The day before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Sal and Mabel Mangano waffled, then decided against evacuating the mom-and-pop nursing home they owned. By morning, 35 of their frailest patients would be dead, drowned in their wheelchairs and beds by the storm surge. On Friday night, after four hours of deliberations, a jury acquitted the Manganos of negligent homicide, charges that could have put them in prison for life. The case raised broader questions about who, if anyone, deserves to be punished for the deaths in Katrina's deadly flooding............."

“What people have to understand is, you’re presented with a horrible choice,” Cobb said. “You take people who are on feeder tubes, who are on oxygen, who are on medications and you put them on a bus to go 70 miles in 12 hours? People are going to die, people are going to die, we know that.”

<p>St. Bernard Parish officials say that 32 of the home's roughly 60 residents died on Aug. 29, more than a week ago.</p>