Some thoughts from the last thread. Life insurance for children is not uncommon. It can build to a huge sum when they're older. We don't know what kind. Many are annuities. Perhaps about a third of my clients with steady, middle class incomes have life insurance policies to their kids. Many jobs offer them.
@MyBelle asked about family killers hiding the bodies after the murders. Several family annihilators have hidden their families' bodies after murdering them.
Bradford Bishop
Christian Longo
David Anthony
Michael Blagg
Someone else mentioned the sentence for the tamper with bodies charges. Tampering with bodies charges carry a maximum of 12 years. They are unlikely to stack them on top of one another. They often are concurrent.
Colorado Felonies and Sentencing Guidelines
Finally, dixiegirl1035 asked:
Strategically, do you believe that there should be a second degree charge for his wife also as an option for the jury to choose from?
So many people talk about overcharging cases and the jury comes out and says they wish they had a lesser charge, and the only one that is lesser right now is about the bodies.
There is no lesser charge as far as the killing and the murder. Your thoughts?
Post #875 of thread 18.
Colorado has the option of including lesser includeds in the charges. But they didn't. I think they feel confident. And this was after the "confession" BTW.
However, it appears to me that per Colorado law, lesser includeds like second degree murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide are an inherent part of first degree murder charges and the jury will undoubtedly be instructed as such:
FindLaw's Supreme Court of Colorado case and opinions.
And if it's a capital murder (death penalty) case, the US Supreme Court has held that lesser includeds MUST be allowed per jury instructions:
Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625 (1980)
Yeah I'm always hearing about overcharging. Unless it's a state that doesn't have lesser includeds in a non-death penalty case, (are there any?) it sounds like b.s. In the casey anthony case the jury was instructed on various lesser includeds including second degree murder, manslaughter, even child neglect.
Nope. Nothing.
I don't think it's a matter of overcharging typically. I think it's a matter of juries doing what they want to do.