@IvyLeague, I'd like to hope that we, as a society, are forgiving people. So that although a person may have committed a horrendous crime, we'd be civil enough to hope and allow for their rehabilitation if they can prove that they can be. Here's an excerpt from a piece about 1st Degree Murder in Canada.

"Despite a sentence of "life imprisonment" being imposed, the vast majority of first degree murderers will eventually be released back into society. Their freedom, however, will be limited by the conditions of parole for the remainder of their lives. Further, a breach of parole could easily result in them having to return to prison to serve additional time."

Even though you have a chance of being paroled, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll receive it.

@Dwalin2010, I'm not familiar with the Cotroni arrest, only that he and two others were arrested for murder of a drug dealer (the name escapes me). That being said I can only think of two plausible reasons as to why he was given Manslaughter. 1) He was initially charged with Manslaughter or 2) During the course of the trial the Prosecution or the Jury/Judge lowered the criminal charge to Manslaughter either through insufficient evidence or some other means.