From a story perspective it would render the attempted murder kinda pointless to include. I'm sure though that some other character was likely involved but I'm pretty sure it wasn't Uta's brother. I'd more likely believe it was someone like Noriko or Yumi. Maybe even Maya if the part in baby finches where she starts talking like a serial killer can be taken at face value but that was a messed up scene. Also if the newest happy scene is talking about Maya being the homeless girl then it could add up. So far not enough info though.
That's what I'm saying, Sana's brother did die to another person and Uta's brother couldn't have done it given his crime was attempted murder, not murder itself, but that doesn't rule out an attempt by Uta's brother that failed and landed him in jail. It was definitely an unknown person who ultimately succeeded. I could also see Noriko, she's just that kind of crazy. Yumi is possible, but the least likely of the three. She does show a tough side, but has yet to show a willingness to follow through with any violent act unless someone else she cares about is in danger, especially any that would result in death. Sana's brother doesn't sound like the type to endanger someone Yumi cares about, so I couldn't see her doing it for that reason. 'Happy' scenes typically can't be taken at face value, so definitely not Maya based on "Baby Finches," but if something comes up in the reality of the game to throw a similar suspicion on her, she could be considered on that evidence.
You watch too many crime dramas.
Edit:
To expand, you cannot really plead down or mitigate to attempted murder.
This is because attempted murder in most (all?) common law jurisdictions is treated with the same severity as murder.
Very basic criminal law lesson incoming:
A crime (usually) requires an actus reus (guilty act) and mens rea (guilty mind) to be a crime.
In the case of murder this would be the act of killing someone (guilty act) and the intent to do so (guilty mind).
If the intent does not exist you end up with manslaughter (or negligent homicide or whatever Americans call it). And we tend to treat that more leniently - you didn't mean to kill someone so you should not be punished the same as if you did.
The interesting question comes up where someone intends to kill but fails in the commission. Here someone has the guilty mind, they set about attempting to commit the worst crime a human can commit. However, through incompetence or the luck of their victim they failed.
The classic law school example (which also encompasses causation) is where someone in the desert replaces their victim's water canteen with poison but before the victim can drink it another murderer pours the poison away (thinking they were pouring away their victim's precious life giving water) leading to the victim dying of thirst. They're both murderers.
The first one just failed by chance and cannot argue "well I didn't ACTUALLY kill him so I'm cool" and the second cannot argue they saved the victim from death by poison (by killing the victim another way).
We treat this the same as if they were successful. It is no mitigation to say "I meant to kill the bastard your honour, but I let go of his throat too early and he survived. But you know, he's not dead so no harm no foul?"
The "scumbag lawyer" trope would have Uta's brother in for manslaughter.
I'm not going to get into how harmful it is to associate us with our clients. Please just don't.
It depends on where you get charged with whether it is called manslaughter or negligent homicide. I swear, sometimes, the states are just trying to make things difficult to understand.
nah, I was thinking in terms of gets attempted murder and the lawyer can tell the kid wont make it so he steam rolls the legal proceedings and pleas out before the kid can die since you can't get charged multiple times over a crime. I am probably wrong as hell about that.
That's not how plea deals work. At best, Uta's brother would get a reduced sentence, not a completely mitigated one. He would serve time in jail for the crime either way. That's just how severe that crime in particular is.
