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Opening Arguments

More or less routine

You have to give attorney Alan Wilson credit for having nerve:

The teenage sniper who killed a New Albany man driving on Interstate 65 near Seymour in 2006 should serve his 42-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled last week.

[. . .]

In Blanton's appeal, his attorney, Alan Wilson, said his sentence was inappropriate given his character and offense, noting the crime “was a more or less routine act of manslaughter, if such a thing is said to exist.”

Blanton's character, such as it is, led him to brag about the shooting while in jail. But the lawyer is, unfortunately, probably right about manslaugher being more or less routine. What made this one not routine, the court said, was the "harm to the motoring public." Randomly and intentionally shooting at cars with a rifle from a highway overpass "creates a fear beyond that of the 'ordinary' manslaughter." So keep it simple, sickos. Go ahead and kill whomever you want to -- just don't scare anybody, OK?

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