AHC: Convict Dan White of First Degree Murder

On November 27th, 1978, San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Dan White Assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk at the San Francisco City Hall. At his trial, White's attorney used a diminished capacity defense and the jury convicted Dan White of Voluntary Manslaughter instead of First Degree Murder. What would have had to be done differently in order to get a first degree murder conviction?
 
Well, if you wanna go back pre-trial, have California`s insanity defense laws written more narrowly, so as not to allow for that breadth of a diminished-capacity defense(iow, less Durhamism and more M`Naughtonish). I believe that following the outrage generated by the verdict, the state`s laws were indeed rewritten along those lines.
 
Well, if you wanna go back pre-trial, have California`s insanity defense laws written more narrowly, so as not to allow for that breadth of a diminished-capacity defense(iow, less Durhamism and more M`Naughtonish). I believe that following the outrage generated by the verdict, the state`s laws were indeed rewritten along those lines.
Or how about Leslie Van Houten gets off in her retrial. Leslie Van Houten was convicted in 1971 of first degree murder for her role in the Labianca Murders, but in 1976 her conviction was overturned on the grounds that she should have been granted a mistrial after her lawyer disappeared. In her 1977 retrial, the jury could not decide whether to convict her of first degree murder or manslaughter, but in her 1978 retrial, the jury found her guilty of First Degree Murder. If Van Houten had been convicted of Manslaughter instead of Murder in either one of her retrials, do you think that could have butterflied what happened in the Dan White case?
 
Make political violence a federal crime with harsher sentences.

Most viewers believed that Harvey Milk's death was a political assassination...... along with: Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, KKK lynchings, Governor George McGovern, etc.

Yes, I know that McGovern did not die when he was shot. He was only paralyzed so badly that he spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. While I many not have agreed with McGovern's right-wing politics, I still believe that his shooting was a bloody political crime.
 
Make political violence a federal crime with harsher sentences.

Most viewers believed that Harvey Milk's death was a political assassination...... along with: Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, KKK lynchings, Governor George McGovern, etc.

Yes, I know that McGovern did not die when he was shot. He was only paralyzed so badly that he spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. While I many not have agreed with McGovern's right-wing politics, I still believe that his shooting was a bloody political crime.
McGovern? I think that you have him confused with George Wallace.
 
Make political violence a federal crime with harsher sentences.

Most viewers believed that Harvey Milk's death was a political assassination...... along with: Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, KKK lynchings, Governor George McGovern, etc.

Yes, I know that McGovern did not die when he was shot. He was only paralyzed so badly that he spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. While I many not have agreed with McGovern's right-wing politics, I still believe that his shooting was a bloody political crime.
or how about a different jury is selected? White's lawyer made sure that no gay people or anybody who supported gay rights got on the jury.
 
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