January 7, 2012

SandBox Comments: Aspen Times "Attempted second-degree murder charge filed Friday"

(See related story here)

"...The day after his Dec. 15 arrest, Jamie Lee Patton, 24, was advised by a judge that the prosecution had planned to charge him with attempted first-degree murder, among other offenses. But on Friday, Chief Deputy District Attorney Arnold Mordkin decided to ratchet down the charge to attempted second-degree murder. A first-degree charge would have indicated that authorities believed Patton's crime was premeditated; second-degree implies that Patton had not planned the attempted killing.

“I had the opportunity to look at it with greater analysis,” Mordkin said, when asked why he did not pursue a first-degree charge...."

(Rick Carroll)

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1 comment:

ebd said...

My affiliation is liberal. I follow this conservative leaning blog for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to keep an eye on what they are up to. There may not be the rousing debates I enjoy with those of like mind on other forums. The at times brutal honesty of Nanny makes up for that loss here.

There is one thing both red and blue should be able to agree upon and I believe that they do. America is broken and on her knees. She needs her passion, her will to fight stirred in order to come to her feet and feel inspired again. That will not be done with Barack Obama as president. I am not sure if it is Newt Gingrich or Rick Perry yet. I hope the left comes to its senses and brings us an alternate before it’s too late.

More than any other election in our lifetime, all Americans need to pay attention to their own backyard. It will be imperative for survival amidst true change that they have trusted and respected leadership in place within their own locale. There is a good deal of work to be done. For the purposes of this post, I will stay in my own element which is the serving of law.

How good it is to see that Arnold is showing one small glimmer of a sign that he just may be paying attention with respect to his court. What a shame it is that his ego is attempting to claim the epiphany rather than simply acknowledging the guidance of Judge Nichols when she read his attempt at first degree in this case.

Since Mr. Patton now has a proper and level playing field so that his defense counsel does not have to wade through knee-deep over-reaching to even get to the starting gate of appropriate battle; I give Mordkin that stroke of ego balanced out with a thank-you from defenders everywhere for finally making the effort to charge appropriately. Maybe next time, grace under fire will also show through from our district attorney.