Summary

Part Two is titled It's Not Fair. Chapter 7, the first chapter of the section, is titled “You Make the Punishment Fit the Criminal” and opens with Ebens and Michael Nitz pleading guilty to manslaughter on March 16, 1983, eight months after Vincent's death. A preliminary hearing was held five months earlier. Judge Thomas Bayles heard testimony the previous October from Vincent's friends, and he suggested the charge be changed to first-degree murder. The overloaded court system depended on plea bargains to leave officials more time to focus on serious crimes. Instead of increasing the charge, prosecutors dropped the charge from second-degree murder to manslaughter. The difference is that the perpetrators in manslaughter cases did not set out to kill someone. These included drunk driving deaths and “fights that got out of control” (58). The possible penalties for manslaughter...