MikeT –
I would agree with you about “manipulation just being manipulation” were we a) talking about an adult victim here who was b) of sound mind.
There’s a reason we have different rules for children and adults in our legal system. We, as a society, recognize the special vulnerability of children to adult manipulations whether they be sexual or otherwise. That’s why they’re not allowed to sign contracts, held fully accountable for their actions in court, are protected from sexual predators in ways that adults are not, etc. In addition, I would argue that the child’s mental issues (which Drew was well aware of) made it impossible for her to make a reasoned decision in this matter – a key point in your attempt to refute my brake-cutting analogy. I would further argue that Drew knew it would be impossible for her to resist the emotional manipulation because of those mental illnesses, and it was a major factor in her decision to pursue her criminal enterprise in the first place.
Just because the state prosecutor made the decision that he thought the case would be too difficult to make doesn’t mean that a) no laws were broken, or b) that another prosecutor given the exact same set of circumstances wouldn’t choose to bring the charges. Your assertion that the state’s failure to bring a case is proof that no case could legally be brought is, in fact, no proof at all.
Lots of crimes aren’t prosecuted across this country every day because the prosecutor decides the case would be too time-consuming or that they might ruin their conviction rate by bringing a case that they had a possibility of losing or for any number of other reasons which have nothing to do with whether or not an actual crime had been committed.
You choose to take the prosecutor at his word that there was no possible way to bring a charge. I don’t. I think he would rather let the Feds try the lesser charge than even running a slight risk of ruining his win-loss record in court in a high-profile case which might adversely affect his career. I still believe that the entirety of the facts of this case would absolutely support a conspiracy to commit murder charge, and I believe the prosecutor was simply too cowardly to bring it.
