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Message: [QUOTE="gordjw, post: 2620687, member: 8328"] [b]re: [Confirmed] Russell Packer --> Panthers[/b] Edit: Looks like you knew this already. Sorry! Port, just on the murder/manslaughter thing. The quote you've got is to downgrade something from murder to manslaughter. E.g. the guy raped your daughter, and when she comes home you take a gun and go blow his brains out. A jury could be persuaded that a normal person would be expected to act that way, and downgrade you to manslaughter charges. Even though you intended to kill him. You can't use it to upgrade from manslaughter to murder, because murder requires "mens rea", which is basically "intent" to commit the crime. The police have to pick one or the other when charging you, (it can be changed before trial), as you can't be tried twice for the same incident, and it's easy to convince the jury that intent did not exist. E.g. My client was so drunk that he couldn't see three feet in front of him, he has never met the victim before, and he would never choose to stomp on someone's head if he was sober. Etc, etc. TL;DR - murder is hard to prove, because it's easy(ish) to downgrade [/QUOTE]

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