George Milton is tried for the death of Lennie Small on one count of murder and two counts of manslaughter. His plea is not guilty. I believe the evidence presented by both the defense team and the prosecutors proved George Milton to be guilty of manslaughter. After a lengthy conversation in the jurors room, I along with the jury reached the verdict that George Milton is in fact guilty of manslaughter. I believe George Milton knowingly cause the death of a man, Lennie Small, while enduring extreme fear. George Milton is sentenced to fifteen years, all of which but seven years are served.
From the beginning, some of the people living on the ranch thought there was something off about George and Lennie. The prosecution asked the boss about Lennie
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The defence questioned Candy about his dog, and why Carlson shot his dog. The defence asked Candy, “So Carlson killed your dog so it would be put out of misery?” Candy said that yes that was true. This is relevant because Curley, the husband of the woman killed by Lennie Small, admitted to the defence that he said, “I’m going to get him. I’m going to kill that son of a bitch myself. I want him to suffer.” If the dog had not been killed by Carlson, then the dog would have suffered and if George had not killed Lennie, Lennie would have suffered too. When the defence questioned George behind his reasoning for killing George he claimed it was because he knew if Lennie got away he could hurt someone else. He also said, “I killed him because I knew Curley wanted to torture him I did not want him to hurt anyone else.” Carlson shot Candy’s dog so he would not have to suffer, and George shot Lennie because he did not want him to suffer any longer. This heartfelt confession from George made me question if he was guilty of manslaughter because in the moment he freaked and did not know what to do so he killed Lennie, or he was not guilty and he killed Lennie purely to protect …show more content…
Slim said that George did take care of Lennie, and that Lennie was not smart and needed someone to give him guidance. SLim said that they were brother like and close. The prosecution brought up a statement George had previously made, “I would never purposely hurt him.” They then proceeded to ask about a story that they had heard about Lennie and George in the past. Slim was forced to tell the prosecution the story George had told him once about attempting to harm Lennie. Slim told the story George had told him about this one time when George told Lennie to jump in a river. As soon as Lennie jumped in George instantly regretted telling Lennie to do so, as he quickly found out Lennie did not know how to swim. Slim claimed, “George was unaware that Lennie could not swim.” Before this he just thought Lennie was dumb. This was about the time Lennie decided to take Lennie under his wing. At first my thought was, when George realized Lennie would do whatever he wanted him to do, Lennie decided to help him out. Then I realized that George also could have decided that Lennie will do whatever he is told, and he can use Lennie to his