People v. Superior Court (Du)

Soon Ja Du (defendant), running her family's Los Angeles liquor store, accused 15-year-old Latasha Harlins of shoplifting a bottle of orange juice; after Harlins struck Du twice during the resulting confrontation and then turned to leave with the juice on the counter, Du grabbed a gun from behind the counter and shot Harlins fatally in the back of the head. At trial, evidence showed the gun had been secretly modified to have a hair-trigger, and Du testified she did not remember firing and that the shooting was unintentional and in self-defense. A jury convicted her of voluntary manslaughter; though her use of a firearm made her presumptively ineligible for probation, the trial court found her case "unusual" and suspended a 10-year sentence in favor of probation, prompting the district attorney to petition for a writ ordering imprisonment.