Hankison Compared to Sessoms

Written by

Russ Kaufmann

in

I saw this meme on the Internet, today. I started to see red. To compare these two, in the same breath, in the same light, is completely irresponsible.Killers

I decided to step back, and gave it some thought. I decided to share my thinking.

Definitions

There are three different, for the most part, definitions regarding crimes involving the killing of others.

Murder in the First Degree – There are three elements to be convicted of this charge. They are:

  1. Intent – You intended to cause the death of the other person. it was your plan. This is where modifications might come into play as the prosecutor tries to prove intent.
  2. Deliberation – Also known as premeditation, you have to have had time to consider it and make the conscious decision to commit the murder. Generally, this means that you had time to reconsider and second guess yourself.
  3. Death – The person must actually be killed.

Murder in the Second Degree – The elements are a bit different. The main difference is that there is no deliberation involved

  1. Intent – You intended to cause the death of
    the other person. it was your plan. This is where modifications might come into
    play as the prosecutor tries to prove intent.
  2. Death – The person must actually be
    killed.

There is no deliberation if in the heat of passion, instigated by a serious and highly provoking act of the victim, and there is not a sufficient time between instigation and the act for second guessing and reconsideration.

Manslaughter – The difference between Murder in the Second Degree and Manslaughter is that in Manslaughter, the act is not knowingly committed, but it is committed recklessly. In other words, there is no intent, but there is negligence.

Intent

Intent is a very important part of the formula. But, it makes no difference to the victim, as they are no longer with us. I agree to that point, but let’s compare the two cases involving the death of an innocent person.

Breonna Taylor

In the Breonna Taylor case, we saw:

  1. A no-knock raid. These scare the fuck out of me as law enforcement officers make mistakes. Hankison, was not the one that made the mistake on the address. There was no intent on his part to kill Taylor.
  2. Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend shot at the police. I get why that happened, see #1. It was a horrible mistake, but again, not made by Hankison. At least I don’t remember him being the one that submitted the warrant request to the judge using the wrong address. Hankison was not one of the officers, from what I have read, that went into Taylor’s residence.
  3. Officers returned fire. Again, I get why. Again, a horrible result going back to #1. The officers returned fire from Walker. They did not act inappropriately in this case.

To be clear, Hankison’s irresponsible firing of his firearm, by shooting blindly, was way outside the realm of what should be expected from anyone carrying a gun. I would say a charge of manslaughter is appropriate for Hankison.

Cannon Hinnant

In the Hinnant case, we saw:

  1. Clear intent to kill the child.
  2. Clear premeditation of the crime.
  3. Death of an innocent child.

Comparison

To compare the Breonna Taylor case to the Cannon Hinnant case is UNACCEPTABLE, and to think that they are even close to being comparable is disingenuous on a scale that I have never seen before. The comparison infuriates me, it is very inappropriate. Sessoms committed a horrendous crime.

Racism?

Neither case appears to have involved racism.

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