after years of legal battles over the 1970 Kent State shootings, what happened?"

read all about it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

You beat me to it, Region. I was interested and surprised to note (I was 18 in 1970) that even* Vice President Spiro T Agnew (a trained lawyer) said to David Frost in an interview 3 days after the shootings that the deaths were "murders", but "not first degree" since there had been no premeditation.

*Agnew is the only Vice President in U.S. history to resign because of criminal charges. (Extortion, tax fraud, bribery, and conspiracy.)

Rednecks at the time used to give hippies a "four fingered salute" that conveyed the message "We got four of you bastards at Kent State". Their grandchildren are probably blogging about Muslims and bursting into Latino homes to murder 9 year olds.

He was right.