Elie Mystal: What the Charges Against the Cops Who Killed Tyre Nichols Really Mean

[Nevilledog]

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/murder-charge-police-tyre-nichols/

No paywall
https://archive.is/N4og3

The five officers who beat Tyre Nichols to death have been charged by the state of Tennessee with murder in the second degree. Perhaps because of the race of the officers, we have been spared the usual mewling from the copaganda brigades arguing that the officers did nothing wrong and shouldn’t be charged with any crime. But there has been some debate about whether the cops have been charged with the right crime. That discussion has been complicated by the fact that the legal definitions of various criminal homicides—manslaughter, murder, and the various degrees of each—don’t always match up with our colloquial understanding of these terms. “Murder in the first degree” sounds more murder-y than “murder in the second degree,” while “voluntary manslaughter” sounds like a fancy lawyer trick to help murderers escape accountability.

The legal jargon around this topic is thick, because humans have invented all sorts of reasons and justifications for killing each other. Yahweh can say, “Thou shalt not kill” and then run back to his mountaintop or spaceship or whatever, but he never met an American police officer.

Allow me to clear up some of this legal terminology so we can get to the heart of what the law is trying to do, and what prosecutors are trying to prove, when they charge somebody—especially a cop—with some form of homicide.

To start, a homicide is the killing of one human being by another. But not all homicides are crimes. All of the noncriminal homicides are called “justifiable homicides,” and most people know what they are from watching TV. “Self-defense” is the most common form of justifiable homicide.

*snip*

[republianmushroom]

1. good post

[Chainfire]

2. 2nd degree murder carries a term of 15-60 years in Tennessee.

I think that 50 year sentences would be about right and may serve double duty in sending a warning to other brutal cops.