WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Legal Expert on Kadamus Case

Legal Expert on Kadamus Case

Burlington, Vermont - July 6, 2009

Kevin Kadamus pleaded not guilty to manslaughter Monday. The Lyndon Center resident shot and killed his son during a hunting accident back in May.

Hundreds showed up to the courtroom to show their support for Kadamus. They say the charges against Kadamus should be dropped.

We asked our legal expert Cheryl Hanna of the Vermont Law School about this case. First, does she think packing the court influences the prosecutor or the judge?

"Well it may be effective in front of a jury but it's not going to be effective on a prosecutor or a judge at this stage," Hanna said. "The court here is going to be concerned about what the law is and whether the defendant broke the law. And while that public display may sway how a jury might ultimately decide, it's not likely to sway the decisions of the prosecutor or the judge."

Marselis Parsons: Should the prosecutor in this case probably have called for a grand jury?

Cheryl Hanna: The difficult part of this particular case is that you have to separate the emotions of the case from the facts of the case. It's not clear to me a grand jury would have come to any different decision if it were just looking at the facts of the case, at least as the state is presenting the facts-- which is suggesting the defendant was grossly negligent when he shot at his son.

Parsons: The state police... did they really have to bring this? After all, when a trooper stops you on the highway for speeding-- for the sake of argument-- he or she can write you a ticket, can write you a warning, or just let you go.

Hanna: Well, yes. It's the prosecutor's decision here whether or not to bring the case so the state police might not have arrested, but when they brought the affidavit back to the prosecutor then the prosecutor has to decide whether she's going to bring charges; whether she thinks the facts really warrant bringing a prosecution. And we've seen here in Vermont over the last couple of years a number of these cases involving hunting accidents. The dilemma for the prosecution is "boy, we've been bringing these cases when someone shoots a stranger or a buddy... how can we NOT bring a case just because the victim is the defendant's son? That's the real dilemma the prosecution faces; trying to be even handed in deciding when to bring these hunting accident cases.

Parsons: Do you foresee a plea agreement here?

Hanna: Well that's an interesting question. This might be a case where the defense decides we really want to test the limits of the law. The Vermont Supreme Court has said there is still some room in the law for 'accident.' In other words, you could accidentally kill someone and not be liable for their deaths in a hunting accident. So this might be a very good case. The facts of this case don't suggest the defendant was-- as the defense has pointed out-- "cavalier" as in other cases we have seen.

Marselis Parsons - WCAX News

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Hunter Pleads Not Guilty in Son's Shooting