When people have an injury and have the pain of healing and recovery it can easily alter their usual good judgement as to how they react to other people. Basically, sometimes people just get cranky and do something dopey.
All things considered, based on his life history, a much more just sentence would be to let Ward go free. No shots fired, no harm done, no big deal, everybody has a temper and sometimes their temper may show its' bad side especially when recovering from a medical operation.
It is incredibly unfair that Ward is stuck away in a prison cell for what may or may not have happened considering there is no personal injuries here.......no bruises, no blood, no marks, no scrapes, NO NOTHING!
And, let's not forget the big impact of the huge legal expense for Ward to get to this place legally. Hiring a defense attorney is very expensive, with all payments up-front, and having this whole event drag out from 2006 must be very difficult.
The whole Carrol County legal process here is a BIG STINKER!
Had I been sitting on that jury, and I usually like to disagree with people, I would have held out as one vs eleven, and not been swayed just to get the trial over and done with. It just takes one out of eleven to get a 'no decision' aka a 'hung jury' which ends the trial with no finding of guilt and may lead to a second new trial.
__________________
... down and out, liv'n that Walmart side of the lake!
|