geauxtohell
Choose your weapon.
You're right, the facts are relevant. For instance, they didn't just shoot Madison. One of the officers shot him in the back. While he was attempting to retreat. He was unarmed. Perhaps the officer driving the car had no way of knowing this, as he was concentrating on driving, but according to Hunter, the officer who did the deed knew or should have known he was unarmed and not a threat. The next factor is when Madison is lying on the ground bleeding to death, when it is abundantly clear that he poses no threat, another officer decides to kick him and stomp him,
which brings us around the to same question,
how the heck is kicking and stomping a dying man a policemans "duty" ?
It's not. You won't hear me arguing otherwise.
They had them on the murder rap. The federal government lacks jurisdiction for a murder charge in this case - if they had jurisdiction for murder you can be damn sure that would be the charge instead.
Now I get to accuse you of not reading my stuff:
After a long investigation, highlighted by Burton Kaplan's decision to testify against his former confederates, both Eppolito and Caracappa were arrested in March 2005 and charged with counts of racketeering, obstruction of justice, extortion and eight counts of murder and conspiracy, including the murders of James Hydell, Nicholas Guido, John "Otto" Heidel, John Doe, Anthony DiLapi, Bruno Facciolo, Edward Lino and Bartholomew Boriello, and the murder conspiracy on Sammy Gravano, hatched by Peter Gotti.
On April 6, 2006, Eppolito and Caracappa were convicted on all charges
So these guys were hiding behind their badges to be mob hitmen, were convicted of, among other things, eight counts of murder and got life. This was a federal case btw.
Like I said, don't hold your breath for execution.
And classifying the murder of 8 mobsters as "more egregious" than killing an unarmed innocent mentally handicapped man and then stomping on his dying body and then arresting his brother and trying to frame him up - is debatable.
I was speaking more of the heinous acts under the "color of law" that these officers were a part and parcel of.