extrahandgrenades t1_jd0h4qw wrote on March 20, 2023 at 11:00 PM

Reply to comment by AntiStatistYouth in DA to seek death penalty against man accused of fatally shooting McKeesport officer by OaSoaD

There’s really no reason to carry on discussing whether it was premeditated or not since it isn’t a legal requisite for Johnathan Morris’ first degree murder charge. It’s a moot point.

He can use his PTSD as a legal defense, but in order to use PTSD as an affirmative insanity defense he has to prove that he was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or wrongfulness of what he was doing.

He knew that pointing a gun at police officers and racking the slide was threatening, because he knew what the gun was capable of. That means he knew what firing it would do, so mens rea exists.

AntiStatistYouth t1_jd0ic3f wrote on March 20, 2023 at 11:09 PM

See other post for why manslaughter is the appropriate charge.

extrahandgrenades t1_jd0krvg wrote on March 20, 2023 at 11:26 PM

It doesn’t meet the criteria for any of those subsections.

(c)(1)(i) Police presence alone does not warrant “serious provocation by the victim killed.” Officers were there for a legitimate reason - a named complainant called 911 concerning the safety of one or more people. The Allegheny County District Attorney reported, “neither Sluganski nor Thomas had drawn their weapons when they approached Morris on Monday.” This is not serious provocation.

(c)(1)(ii) He did not negligently kill Sean Sluganski in the course of defending himself from serious provocation by another person.

(c)(2) His actions are not justified under any of the Chapter 5 sections pertaining to self-defense.