What people have to understand is that to get a murder conviction requires intent. You can't just charge someone with murder because you want to punish them. If there is no intent, there is no murder charge.
People fuck up all the time and kill people. The only reason these cases get mentioned is because they involve a cop.
Regular citizens get the same treatment. If you shot someone you thought was breaking into your house only to find out it was your neighbor that happened to scare the shit out of you, is that murder?
No.
Is it manslaughter?
Definitely.
This case is really no different. It's tragic as hell. But what you can't prove is that this cop knew this woman, had some sort of grievance with her and decided to fake a call to the location to shoot her dead. THAT is what you'd have to prove to get a murder conviction, or something very close to it.
Over charging because of "wanting somebody to pay" is how so very many get off Scot free.
*'...only to find out it was your neighbor in his own home'.
sorry Mr. Criminology Teacher- but this one stinks like a week old dead fish..she really thought she'd get away with..thought she had a fool-proof, iron-clad alibi- wrong apartment
truth is anyone who's ever lived in an apartment knows what it's like to live under someone and Jean Boatham was her someone..he did something that bothered her and she took care of it the way she knew how..personally, I would've just moved to another unit but that would incur extra expense..no one ever mentioned what type of relationship they had as neighbors.
I typically won't live under someone anymore but one of my 'someones' who lived above me in the past was an overweight lady who did two things that drove me crazy..1) When she got up at 4AM it was like a ton of bricks hit the floor- literally..right above me I would wake up shell-shocked out of sound sleep 2) We lived lakefront which drew bugs to our door light and congregating on the front door. My neighbors idea to get the bugs off the front door was to hit it from the backside before going out- I always knew when she was leaving because she would pound the door 10 times before going outside. That kind of shit drives you nuts and there was no making a suggestion to her..my dogs would go nuts every time she did this.
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