Kim Potter Sentencing
 

The sentencing hearing is being conducted live on the Headline News channel now. Very interesting.

She’s been sentenced to two years; just read that. It appeared she felt so terrible about her mistake. I read another officer there took her gun after the incident for fear she would use it on herself.

Quite frankly, I personally think she feels like she needs to be punished. A horrible mistake that should not have happened by a trained officer.

The key word is "trained". Too many police departments are strapped for cash and usually training is cut back so those funds can be diverted to other areas.

You can have the best training and still make a tragic mistake in a combat situation.

This case bothers me. If I were the prosecutor, she would not have been charged. If I were a juror, she would not have been convicted. If I were the judge, she would have received no punishment. She made an unfortunate mistake that anyone could have made in a split second. She had no intention to do anything other than to perform her job. She was a good police officer and training had nothing to do with it. I didn't see any evidence to justify sending her to prison. My opinion.

Legal experts question fairness of 2-year sentence for ex-cop who killed Daunte Wright

This is a very hard case to make generalizations about.

FIred, yes. Imprisoned, NO. Unless I have it wrong, she had no malice toward the person that was fighting to get away. A person that was breaking the law and had an outstanding warrant, was shot by accident.

you are SO on the money with that statement. it's not too often you see a veteran cop cry the way she did after the fatal shot was fired. i'm sure to come under fire for that honest statement, lol

not only those crimes, but a lot more when you start to dig deeper into his record. a terrible shame all around for everyone

How many left-turn accidents kill motorcyclists? Many, but the car drivers aren't charged with manslaughter. The death is resolved in civil court. There's also pilot error, military blunders, medical malpractice, manufacture negligence, judicial misconduct, and other titles for screw-ups. This officer was handling a violent criminal and accidently grabbed the wrong weapon. It's a tragic accident which doesn't belong in criminal court.

You need two elements for a criminal offense; the "evil act" (actus reus) and the "evil thought" (mens rea). I stayed at a Holiday Inn the other night, so I know about this stuff.

The evil act without conscious intent on the part of the acting party is, except for some negligence cases (driving drunk for example) is not criminal. Not being an attorney I don't understand why this unfortunate situation wasn't resolved civilly.

Serious addition; when I was a mere child I taught this stuff in the NYPD and later when chief of police in lectures on the use of deadly physical force.


The new social agenda (the law be damned for some) in this country disgusts me.

It saddens me that her life has been ruined for making a mistake in the heat of attempting to arrest a violent felon resisting arrest. Being a LEO these days is a dangerous and thankless job. I keep hearing about how police are being shot by violent thugs. War on cops: 24-hour-period sees 13 police officers wounded by gunfire | Fox News

She was a good police officer for 26 years and never fired her gun. She should not have been charged. It was an accident. I hope she survives prison. Those thugs will find a way to get to her. Unfairly, she has been striped of her pension. So she pays for this accident for the rest of her life.

Hate to say it, BUT unless there is way more to this than we are seeing, it appears that the charges and penalty were racially based(pressured) and would likely have had a totally different outcome two or three years ago. I know there will be flack for saying this but I bet the same thought has occurred to others that have been following this incident. How many really believe that if she was black or he was white that this would have still gone to criminal court with charges? Its very unfortunate this seems to be the trend today. Motivation and intent that is not there, but based on some implied bias. Just my opinion. But, I was not there and I was not an observer of the trial, so there may be more to it that totally nullifies my opinion.

The family of the deceased was totally disgusting in their statements after the sentence. He was no choir boy.