BBM
Yeah well, this is the bull riding, calf roping, Stetson hat type of state and that is indeed how they do things here. I have seen it many times. Murder charges filed, suspect arrested, court date, a period of time suspect sitting in jail, DA comes back and says "ok we are dropping this to manslaughter, negligent homicide ect" or in a lot of cases "ok we are dismissing the charges at this time Your Honor" because the evidence just wasn't there.
But they either have overwhelming proof (suspect standing over the dead body with smoking gun in hand when they arrest them) or an autopsy report with COD as homicide before they make that arrest and charge the suspect with murder. It's that cowboy, John Wayne, mentality I guess.
But the people here also have a sense of fairness that says your are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. We gave up lynching people with no proof there was even a murder back in the 1800's before we even became a state.