If the prosecutor could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant consciously pulled the trigger while discharging the firearm, yeah, the accused would be guilt as charged.
In Officer Liang's case, the prosecutor won the case by prsenting the real gun for the jurors to have a feel of how hard it is to pull the trigger and how conscously the shooter must have been to complete such an act. Case closed.
In court battles, evidence speaks much louder than words or thoughts. For an accused to win his case, he MUST show hard evidence countrary to whatever evidence presented by the prosecutor. Officer Liang failed to do that. In fact, all he presented was what he PROCLAIMED that had had happened. Unfortunately, the juror did not buy his version of the event because there is no HARD evidence either in physics or maths to prove what Officer Liang said was possible.
In other cases you mentioned, I do not know the details of the evidence presented therein and, thereby would not be able to argue one way or the other.
The harsh reality is that it is useless to cry over spilled milk or beat a dead horse. Learn the lesson and move on.
