Told You There Was A Different Feel To This Case

The jury rejected the self defense claim (the defendant said he thought he was about to be robbed) and found that he intentionally shot and killed the officer without justification. However, they had a reasonable doubt the defendant actually knew the victim was a police officer. So we have a Murder conviction instead of Capital Murder. Big difference.

Now the jury will have to set punishment anywhere from a maximum of life in prison to a minimum of probation (yep). If they had found him guilty of Capital Murder, the decision would have been either death or life in prison.

Edit with no research as I'm hauling manure dirt: The legislature changed the law to make probation not an option for murder. Everyone forgets this including me. I think the law took effect 9/1/09 or 9/1/07. It will be the law that was on the books on the day of this guy's crime which will control. I'll figure it out later. Back to hauling poop dirt. #IsThisFridayNight?:

Edit: The law took effect in 2007 so this guy is not eligible for probation. It'll take the media and the lawyers about 24 hours to figure this out.