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Article: BALANCING THE SCALES THE ISSUE: CHARGES AGAINST LISL AUMAN INCLUDE FIRST-DEGREE MURDER OUR VIEW: JURY SHOULD HAVE OPTION OF CONVICTING ON LESSER CHARGES.(Editorial)
- Article from:
- Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
- Article date:
- July 11, 1998
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Rocky Mountain News. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Dialog LLC by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Lisl Auman is on trial for first-degree murder, as well as a long list of other felonies, because Matthaeus Jaehnig killed Denver police officer Bruce VanderJagt and, police say, with a gun she gave him.
We can understand why the Denver district attorney chose to prosecute the case as aggressively as he could. Police officers who regularly put their lives on the line deserve unqualified support when one of their own is killed. And their danger is lessened when perpetrators - to the extent they're capable of rational thought - know they can expect no leniency if they kill a cop.
We'd only caution that jurors might be reluctant to follow the argument that ...