Fab4Runner;1470929 wrote:That was my question.
This is very similar to the two related concepts of anchoring (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring) or Door-in-the-Face (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique). The Murder 2 is essentially the anchor that all subsequent judgement/decisions appear much more reasonable. If I charge $1000 for something at first, even if it is only worth say $500, when I decide to charge $750, that seems pretty good if the perspective is based on the $1000; however, it is still overpriced. In this case, there is the possibility that the Murder 2 seems extreme but manslaughter doesn't sound so bad when that is the baseline anchor.
I have to major problems with this.
1. To me, I don't see any practical negative to overcharge. If at by the end of the trial they feel they have proven that greater charge, then great. If they don't feel that it has been proven, then put the lesser charges out there, even if the entire case was built around the greater charge. It seems that this is an opportunity to throw random stuff out there (much like the child abuse component of today) and hope something works. I feel like it just adds unnecessary confusion and puts the defense at a severe disadvantage.
2. At least in this case, while these are lesser charges, punishment is not necessarily less severe. First, that is a fundamental flaw of any punishment system if the greater offense does not have a greater punishment. Second, at the end of the day, at least to me, the point is to find the punishment most applicable to a given situation. Part of the reason that we have categories and severity of charges is to represent that punishment. In this case, manslaughter with a gun is just as severe. I'm not sure why a gun, provided it is legally owned and permitted on person, is any different than a knife, baseball bat, car, or any other possible weapon would carry such a large difference in punishment.