The man indicted by an Anoka County grand jury for leaving his infant son to die in his mini-van is weighing his legal options today. Kevin Daley is charged with second-degree manslaughter. Daley told police he didn't realize he had left his son in the van when he walked into work at his Blaine office building earlier this month. He was released without bail and is scheduled to appear in court again on September 11th. The Reverand R.L Jackson is Daley's pastor at New Hope Baptist Church in St. Paul. He says Daley was suprised by the Grand Jury's indictment:
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SPEAKER 1: He is a wonderful person. He is a associate minister here at New Hope Baptist church. And he's very active, very involved. He's a good citizen, good character. Very nice man. Very humble gentleman. I really like him. And our church likes him. Matter of fact, they have embraced the entire family. And we're hurting and suffering along with them through this process.
If it goes to trial, my guess is it won't try until the winter. If it does not go to trial, it may be settled. And it may be settled sooner than later. It could be settled for something less than the charge. If it is settled for the charge, as the grand jury handed it down, it may turn out to be a sentencing case.
In other words, the whole question in the case may be not did it happen, or whether we're trying to trace the fine line between should have known and carelessness, and whether this was recklessness. Those are the three concepts that are going to be talked about. It may be what's the punishment? Is this a prison case, or is this a public awareness case?
SPEAKER 2: What's it like to prosecute a case like this?
SPEAKER 1: Nobody is going to have any fun with this case. This is going to be a painful case to prosecute. It will not be a difficult case to prosecute in technical terms. It will be a difficult case to prosecute emotionally and morally. Nobody is going to enjoy this process, either the prosecution or the defense.
SPEAKER 2: What about people who are sort of criticizing this current move, saying that, well, they're just trying to make an example out of this man?
SPEAKER 1: Well, they're right. That's one of the functions of a grand jury is making examples. And it's one of the theories of deterrence, which I'm not particularly enamored of. But one of the theories of deterrence is that by prosecuting somebody, you deter other people from similar conduct. Well, that works fine in a pure intentional homicide world. But I'm not sure it works in a world where you're dealing with haste, overwork, forgetfulness, and certainly no intent to do harm, and certainly no intent to kill.