Cop Kills Oakland Man. Only Gets Involuntary Manslaughter

On the early morning of New Year's Day last year there was a fight at the Bart station and officers responded, broke up the fight, and detained some of the men who were involved. 

One of the officers was Johannes Mehserle and one of the men involved in the fight was Oscar Grant.  The incident was captured on video by several people at the Bart station.  Go ahead an google it if you haven't seen the incident already.  The video clearly shows Oscar Grant laying face down.  Officer Mehserle then draws his weapon and fires a shot into the back of Oscar Grant who was pronounced dead later that morning at an area hospital.

I just don't see how he gets found guilty of just "Involuntary Man-Slaughter" when the video shows a pretty much clear cut murder, in my eyes anyway.  The officer's defense was that he thought he drew his Taser and only intended on tasing the victim. 

My question is, why are you going to tase somebody that is laying face down on the ground?  The only thing that cop should have been pulling out was his cuffs.  There is no need to tase somebody let alone shoot them when they are laying face down.

The situation makes no sense to me.  Johannes Mehserle seemed to have got a break in this case because he was an officer of the law.  In my opinion, since he was a cop, the judge should have been that much harder on him.  He clearly abused his authority in the situation.  You can't just shoot somebody that is laying down. 

The sentence that the officer is facing ranges anywhere from probation to as much as 15 years.  He obviously is going to get a light sentence considering he already was found not guilty of 2nd degree murder and voluntary manslaughter which either one would have been followed by a longer sentence than involuntary manslaughter.

The system we have in place doesn't serve justice.  A man was clearly murdered here but since the man who fired the shot was wearing a badge it makes it an accident.  How do you confuse your taser with your handgun? 

I just hope the police don't end up hurting or killing anybody else in Oakland during the protests that are taking place and the protests that will take place after his sentencing in August.

Let's compare this to a case we all know about.  Michael Vick was found guilty of killing dogs and served 21 months for his harsh crime.  The officer will likely serve about the same amount of time or just a little bit more for killing a human being. 

Oscar Grant left behind a young daughter and fiancee among others.

Is this justice?