Jury Should Explain How it Arrived at ‘Murder Two’ in Figoski Killing - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com
Here's what happened, according to a New York Daily News account, when a crew planned to rob a drug dealer in the basement of a Brooklyn apartment building.
One of people who lived there heard the ruckus and called police. While trying to escape, Pride says he collided with Figoski, stumbled, and accidentally fired a round into Figoski's face.
Prosecutors tend not to believe in the miraculous, even less when suspect has a lengthy criminal record. But a first-degree murder conviction depended on what the jury believed. The jury of 10 men and two women ruled out first-degree murder.
You have to marvel at the jurors' love of fantasy. They wanted to pretend Pride didn't know how his gun worked.
A Daily News report says that Pride's accomplice, Ariel Tejada, testified he had "racked" the pistol before entering the basement. Tejada's testimony shows an awareness of intent and a familiarity with handguns. "Racking" meant operating the pistol slide to move a bullet from the magazine to the gun's chamber. You can learn at least that much from listening to gangster rap.
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