This was a playground dispute between teenage boys over a $30 ball. We expect teenage boys to be impulsive and irresponsible. But teenage boys didn't turn this dispute into a tragedy. Their parents did. Gretchen Steel, who bullied her boys into going back to get their ball, who in defiance of common sense carpooled them to a street fight with baseball bats. Ray Manning, who, on impulse, ran out of his house with a loaded gun, who without warning, without thinking and with callous disregard, fired into a public street. Any reasonable adult would have kept their kids at home. Any reasonable adult would have found a way short of lethal force to get his son out of harm's way. You may think that this white woman and black man have nothing in common. But they share blood, the blood on their hands. Now you've watched them point the finger at each other, shirk responsibility, acting like children. No more, ladies and gentlemen. Make them take responsibility.
[after the verdicts are delivered] I understand the jury has a statement they'd like to read.
FForeman
Yes, Your Honor. We, the jury, think this terrible event never would have occurred without both defendants causing it. And we recommend they should get the exact same sentence.
