How often do you see a prosecution for lynching in the twenty-first century?
How often do you see a sentence arising from such an offense be "two years in a county camp" rather than something more serious?
How often do you see a defendant argue that she -- notice the gender, by the way -- should instead have been charged with the lesser offense of inciting a riot?
All of this, and more, in this opinion.
Oh, one more thing. The individual guilty of lynching isn't necessarily the race you might think she'd be.
Needless to say, the offense of "lynching" in California in 2011 is somewhat different than its historical analogues.
