And the argument like that of the prosecution relies on dismissal of the known fact that the UNSECURED gun was originally stolen from the car of a California State Lands official…
I’m glad that the current occupant of the white house has raged over this verdict in the same manner and he did over the verdicts in the Philandro Castile, Tamir Rice, Anthony Smith, Michael Brown, Travon Martin, Eric Garner, et al cases.Oh wait, never mind… What could possibly be the difference in those cases to this one?
Interestingly enough, what hurt the Anthony Smith case is prosecutorial overreach. They went for first degree murder, the same as here.
Is there a place we can deport the gun manufacturers and the wingnuts who insist safety only occurs with more guns? Don’t tell me, no other country in the world would take them?
A U.S. Bureau of Land Management ranger reported the gun stolen from his SUV parked in San Francisco a few days before the shooting.
“I never have to lock it up when I’m in the field! Besides, a gun sitting visibly in the open in my car is supposed to dissuade people from breaking in, right?”
I tend to doubt his story that he found the gun and it accidentally went off when he picked it up.
But the strong evidence that the victim was hit by the bullet only after it had ricocheted off something else 90 feet away pretty much obliterates any argument that he intentionally killed her.
Even a highly-skilled trick shooter would be hard-pressed to pull off a “bank shot” like that.
So the prosecutor’s request that the jury find him guilty of first degree murder “if they believed Garcia Zarate meant to kill Steinle” was ridiculous.
I wonder whether that bit of overreach may have backfired, by suggesting to the jury that the prosecution was engaged in a malicious political prosecution rather than a normal criminal trial, leading them to look less favorably on the prosecution’s other arguments.
California law is the reason why the defendant’s immigration status and prior convictions were not mentioned. It is true in civil cases also.
Can’t seem to figure out how his immigration status affected the direction that bullet took… anyone have an answer?
Thoughts and prayers?
Michael Cardoza, a longtime San Francisco Bay Area lawyer said the prosecutor made a mistake by asking the jury to convict Garcia Zarate of first-degree murder despite strong evidence that the bullet ricocheted around 90 feet (27 meters) before fatally striking Steinle on July 1, 2015. Cardoza said a better case could have been made to convince jurors Garcia Zarate had a “reckless disregard for human life” and convicted him of second-degree murder.
Another over-reaching prosecutor ends up being a fucking moron.
This is tragic, and Zarate’s story about finding it under a chair on the pier sounds fishy as hell. I wouldn’t be surprised if he stole the gun in the first place. But it was clearly an accidental shooting and the judge handled the case properly.
I have been told that the type of gun at issue here can go off rather easily.
As designed, unfortunately. Funny, I didn’t hear mention of the gun manufacturer being part of the suit.