how cheap is a mans life?

[2shoes]

link here
I am disgusted by the very short sentaces

And they'll probably only serve half the sentence, in effect they,ve had their hands slapped.

can't believe that got of so lightly

How was it judged not to be murder? Totally ridiculous.

I'd imagine it was due to the level of alcohol they consumed. Self-induced intoxication is a defence to a crime of specific intent i.e. murder so that's why it would be manslaughter and not murder.

That is absolutely discusting. I don't think drink makes people violent. It just shows what they truly are. These boys are truly evil and will probably offend again.

It's not that it makes them violent, it's that if they drink to the point where they are in an automatonic/intoxicated state then they are incapable of forming the specific intent/mens rea required for murder. They could still be guilty if they formed the intent before and it was a 'dutch courage' scenario, but the drink is by no means a defence to the violence aspect of the case hence they are still capable of being guilty of manslaughter because it is not a crime of specific intent.

they beat him up, left him then went back and killed him..
how can that not be murder.
they will be out in a couple of years..

Of course, you can get long/life sentences for manslaughter. It just rarely happens. Would be interesting to compare this to the sentencing guidelines.

"how can that not be murder"

As I said above I'd imagine, although without transcripts etc it's just an assumption, that it would have hinged on the amount they had drunk that night. To be guilty of murder there must have been an intention to kill or cause serious injury, the defence regarding self-induced intoxication would be that they had drunk so much that they had entered an automatonic state and were incapable of forming this intent. With manslaughter however recklessness as to whether or not you caused death is sufficient to be convicted and getting yourself into a state of intoxication where you may cause death would be the reckless act.

I agree with you 2shoes, it is disgusting.
I think it comes down who you are. If this man had been a bigwig VIP then I think they would have got far greater sentences.

sadly I agree,. he was just a much love big issue seller

That's more than a lot of drivers who kill people whilst behind the wheel get .

2shoes you are right, he had people who loved him and was just as important as anyone else. The sentences these thugs got is an insult

I suspect ordinary, nice, decent people who would never dream of beating anyone to death don't suddenly turn into thugs after a few drinks - or even many drinks.

I suspect the sort of person who beats someone to death doesn't have very good impulse control or morals at any time, drunk or sober.

Drunkenness is no excuse for killing someone. (Nor is taking an anti-smoking medicine, despite that idiot judge acquitting a man who confessed to assaulting his partner with the excuse that he was on Zyban or something.)

I think examples should be made of these thugs with stiff sentences and they should be heavily publicised to deter others. I don't think alcohol should be an excuse, but I do think that some drugs can seriously affect people. There have been cases of mothers killing their children after taking some of these medical drugs.