From MSNBC:
"An Oklahoma pharmacist has been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder in the shooting death of a teenager who tried to rob the south Oklahoma City pharmacy where he worked."
Having not been on the jury and heard all the testimony, I have a hard time concluding whether this is a just or unfair sentence. However, from what I gather from news outlet sources only, this conviction/sentence appears to have similarities with an entrapment case.
From Wikipedia:
"Entrapment holds if all three conditions are fulfilled:
- The idea for committing the crime came from the government agents and not from the person accused of the crime.
- Government agents then persuaded or talked the person into committing the crime. Simply giving someone the opportunity to commit a crime is not the same as persuading them to commit that crime.
- The person was not ready and willing to commit the crime before interaction with the government agents."
To relate an entrapment defense to the pharmacy shooting, we need to replace the "government" with the initial perpetrators, in this case, the teenagers that intended to rob the pharmacy.
1. The idea was given to the pharmacist by the teenagers walking into the store with guns drawn and masks on their faces.
2. The persuasion was offered by the gunfire directed at the pharmacist from the teenagers gun(s) with the intent to do bodily harm.
3. There is no evidence that the pharmacist was "ready and willing" to commit any crime before these two teenagers entered his store to threaten him with physical harm.
Unless your life has been in real danger from being shot at with a gun at close range in a confined space, I find it hard to imagine what your state of mind would be at that moment or soon afterwards. I can tell you this though. Death is pretty (insert word starting with F) final, and I can imagine being quite upset (excuse the massive understatement) at someone who threatened to take my life.
Everywhere this case leads is a sad, dark and disturbing place. I appreciate and feel for what emotions the jury must have felt in this most unfortunate set of cicumstances.