Mom's manslaughter conviction for her son's school shooting sets a dangerous precedent

A Michigan jury convicts Jennifer Crumbley on four counts of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of her son, Ethan .

Frida Ghitis : The prosecution argued the Crumbleys disregarded signs Ethan was depressed and gifted him a gun for Christmas .

She says the case seemed to hinge on what prosecutors wished the law said, not on what it actually says.

Ghitis asks: How far the state can reach to hold parents accountable for actions of their children?.

" Ethan Crumbley was a child, or he wasn't. He was responsible for his actions, or his parents were. Can the state argue both positions at once? Prosecutors insist they can, and they did.

But their success says less about the intellectual coherence of that approach and more about our desire to address every injustice with prison.