Sentence commuted in racially charged shooting

Originally Posted by JordanAng420

I agree with you there, absolutely.

My question here is, and i'm really not trying to be a smartie pants, i'm just trying to understand, why is this guy so special that he should only serve 5 months for killing somebody?

I'd be willing to bet that there are thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousdands, of criminals serving their full term for the crime of killing somebody, regardless of the circumstances.

Why shouldn't he? And there's many other people that have been released under less circumstances. Why should only HE have to serve full time? The guy has no priors, he didn't seek the teens out, he wasn't on their property and he was just woken and got out of bed to deal with this threat to his family.

I read the story as the boy came up on him (it doesn't say if the other guys were behind him or not) and the evidence bears that out, the boy was drunk, had a gang and was threatening. I am sure that under the same pressure it could have happened to anyone that was previously programmed on how to react under these circumstances.

If White was on the up-and-up here, why were his weapons illegal?

Originally Posted by Mister Internet

If White was on the up-and-up here, why were his weapons illegal?

LOL... lots of people have unregistered guns.

Sometimes when you go looking for trouble you find it.

A 17 year old out drinking..... gets a carload of people to go beat down someone at their house..... his father should have raised him better.

Forgive me but regardless of the color of one's skin killing is killing. This, to me, sounds like murder. This doesn't in any way sound like an unintentional shooting or something that was an accident. The unregistered weapon is of no issue either.
Common sense simply state that you don't take a gun out if you have zero intention of using it. Why not just call the police???? I mean really.

The shooter deserves WAY more then FIVE MONTHS for taking someone's life. It even flat out says he wasn't placed in prison for the killing till July 9 of 2010! So he served five months for manslaughter! Regardless of if the teenager was drunk or not he was an adult and brought a gun out. There's a reason 911 is in place and there are officers on patrol. I see nothing in the stories about police being called till AFTER the kid was shot. You fear for your family and self yet you don't call police???? What about that am I not understanding?????

Again this has nothing to do with race, being white, black or purple it has everything to do with a human being killing another human being and only serving FIVE MONTHS in prison for it.

Originally Posted by TailsWithScales

Forgive me but regardless of the color of one's skin killing is killing. This, to me, sounds like murder. This doesn't in any way sound like an unintentional shooting or something that was an accident. The unregistered weapon is of no issue either.
Common sense simply state that you don't take a gun out if you have zero intention of using it. Why not just call the police???? I mean really.

The shooter deserves WAY more then FIVE MONTHS for taking someone's life. It even flat out says he wasn't placed in prison for the killing till July 9 of 2010! So he served five months for manslaughter! Regardless of if the teenager was drunk or not he was an adult and brought a gun out. There's a reason 911 is in place and there are officers on patrol. I see nothing in the stories about police being called till AFTER the kid was shot. You fear for your family and self yet you don't call police???? What about that am I not understanding?????

Again this has nothing to do with race, being white, black or purple it has everything to do with a human being killing another human being and only serving FIVE MONTHS in prison for it.

And the kids should get what? They were there on the porch and NOT peacefully. It's about time some of them learned there are CONSEQUENCES for their damn behavior.

We don't know that the police were not called earlier and just took their sweet time showing up.

WTH? A carload of drunk angry teens shows up and is on your porch to beat up your kid.. and you'd just call the cops while they murder your own kid? How many accounts are in the news about teens beating another to death, throwing acid on each other, setting a boy on fire.. etc.. but you think this entire group were there to just have a tea party? They were right on top of the guy.. that's NOT a teen just there for no reason. Damn right I'd have shot them, black white or green.

It's not murder when there's several people advancing on you on your own property in a threatening manner especially when they came specifically to hurt one of the family members. In my opinion he shouldn't have had any jail time as it's self-defense. He didn't go to THEIR houses.. he didn't go off and find these people to shoot them. They came to his house threatening people.

I'm glad I live in a state that has a law regarding my right to defend myself in my own house. I feel bad there's places where you have to call the cops and wait however long until they get around to arriving while the ATTACKERS are beating your family members or killing someone you love.

The biggest problem I have with this entire incident was the shooter was in his house before the carload of potential attackers had arrived. Why did he feel compelled to take his illegally owned fire arm and go outside to confront the mob. If he had remained inside this incident would have at best ended up with a bunch of drunk underage morons getting arrested and we'd never hear about the story, and at worst, the shooting would have occured inside of the house at which point it would have been 100% justified. We aren't talking about an incident where they pulled up on the shooter while he was getting out of his car and attacked him before he could go inside for safety.

I would like to know also if the remaining members of the group were charged with anything, whether it be underage drinking, or??? And if not why.

Originally Posted by Randall Turner

The biggest problem I have with this entire incident was the shooter was in his house before the carload of potential attackers had arrived. Why did he feel compelled to take his illegally owned fire arm and go outside to confront the mob. If he had remained inside this incident would have at best ended up with a bunch of drunk underage morons getting arrested and we'd never hear about the story, and at worst, the shooting would have occured inside of the house at which point it would have been 100% justified. We aren't talking about an incident where they pulled up on the shooter while he was getting out of his car and attacked him before he could go inside for safety.

I would like to know also if the remaining members of the group were charged with anything, whether it be underage drinking, or??? And if not why.

I.C.§18-4009, JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE BY ANY
PERSON

2. When committed in defense of habitation, property
or person, against one who manifestly intends or
endeavors, by violence or surprise, to commit a felony,
or against one who manifestly intends and endeavors,
in a violent, riotous or tumultuous manner,
to enter the habitation of another for the purpose of
offering violence to any person therein.
State Preemption Law
I.C. §18-3302J(2), PREEMPTION OF FIREARMS

http://www.answers.com/topic/self-de...f_self-defense

In a courtroom secured by 18 police officers because of the racial tensions, White testified that he was trying to protect his family when the white teenagers turned up at his house. He claimed his pistol fired accidentally when Cicciaro lunged for it.

The victim had a blood-alcohol reading above the legal limit for driving and was just 3 inches from the pistol when he was shot.

Not to read more into this than is there...but those THREE INCHES tell me that perhaps Mr. White WAS in the house and the intruder had approached the house and he stepped out to tell him to go away...THREE INCHES...stupid male......someone is waving a gun and you don't turn around and leave?

I would have a problem if the teen had been shot in the back..but 3 THREE inches tells me that the intruder wasn't up to any good, and we don't know where the rest of the gang was or what the threats were.

Why should I or anyone have to cower in our houses waiting for assistance while someone is "ON OUR PORCH" threatening harm? Perhaps they were ready to burn the house or threatening..there are too many "What ifs" and I still want to know where those other males were while all this was happening.

The article says the shooting occured at the foot of the driveway, the term foot leaves alot of vagueness as to where exactly the foot is. The way I interpret it is at the end, such as the foot of the bed. I could be mistaken, and for arguments sake lets say the foot of the driveway is at the end closest to the house.

How far is the average driveway from the front door of ones home? Definitely more then 3".

The lack of anything mentioning the mob threatening to burn down/destroy the Whites home tells me it was never said, as it would have been a key component to the defense, or at the very least justification for the Governor to commute the sentence.

Why should I or anyone have to cower in our houses waiting for assistance while someone is "ON OUR PORCH" threatening harm? Perhaps they were ready to burn the house or threatening..there are too many "What ifs" and I still want to know where those other males were while all this was happening.

The reason to cower in your own home is because unjustified man slaughter to prevent property damage awaiting law enforcement to arrive, in most states IS the legal way to go about things. People can feel all the right in the world to go outside and shoot a perpetrator but if the laws aren't written to allow such behavior it is a crime and reason justified or not doesn't lessen that fact. If someone lives in a location where they do not agree with the laws they should move, or at the very least try to change said laws.

Taking the fire arm outside to confront the mob was the wrong decision to make, and the eventual death of one of the mob whether Whites intentions when he brandished the fire arm was a consequence that deserved punishment. The appropriate length of said punishment is something that is best left to those who have had all details provided for them, as in a courthouse with appropriate representatives for both sides. From what I've gathered his sentence falls in line with manslaughter (varying from 12 months to 5+ years depending on the details).

I find this situation unfortunate, as it appears to have been a tragedy that should have and likely could have been avoided, and the lack of information provided to the public is allowing others (all of us) to form opinions on only part of the story and making it a more heated discussion then it should be.