I'm going to be the bad guy here and agree with the defendant's lawyer. What the guy did i reprehesible to the nth degree, but that doesn't make it second degree murder. The guy needed to go away for the maximum amount of time allowable by law, but this sound more like trial by mob than anything else. I'd be absolutely happy with 17 years for vehicular manslaughter, but I don't think that this meets the merits of second degree murder. They're misusing the statute, and I hope that it doesn't backfire and get overturned on appeal.
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