A Little "Mea Culpa" For Ya

Reinforcing Bar

Two days ago our blog posted a chart outlining three local manslaughter cases. We listed the sentence for Neler Keeton as 15 years, when in actuality it was 20. Mea Culpa. That's the max for Manslaughter in Alabama; yes, he really ticked off the judge, but did he deserve it?

Our fellow blogger D.K. feels that he did. Shoalanda herself doesn't, and it's a point on which we have always disagreed. Keeton was guilty from the moment he escaped to his house and didn't call 911, but before that?

Anthony Hunt was 35 years Keeton's junior, and co-workers reported he had a hot temper when crossed. He wanted to make sure Keeton had little or no access to his own grandson, and he got his wish. He just wound up dead in accomplishing his goal. No, he didn't bring the rebar to Mr. Keeton's property, but he did use it. The prosecution contended Hunt hit Keeton accidentally, but no one has ever explained how he hit his former father-in-law on the forehead. Just how does that happen?

Now Mr. Keeton is serving a 20 year sentence, but what about Hershel Graham? He shot David Andrasik, a man with no weapon, one too inebriated to harm anyone, and received two years. We think D.K. agrees this is totally unacceptable. What about Chris Martin? Just as Hunt had dropped the rebar before Keeton shot him, Grant Campbell had dropped the knife before Mr. Martin shot him. It will be interesting to see what a Colbert County jury thinks about this case.

*****

We'll elaborate on a personal opinion here (and we're pretty sure D.K doesn't share it). Any 40 year old man who hits a 75 year-old man over the head in anger just might very well be better removed from the gene pool. No, we don't advocate shooting anyone, but nevertheless it was no great loss to mankind. Hunt was at worst a man who could not control his anger and at best a 40 year old who couldn't take a 75 year old in a fight without using what could have been a lethal weapon.



Shoalanda