As has been said, it is all about the feel you want.

For instance, in our group only two of us have read the books, and they wanted to take advantage of that fact to run a game where they play normal people who are introduced to the world of magic: a cop, a barista, a grad student, and a newly apprentice wizard. Each of them has something in their past that is bringing supernatural attention, and together they are trying to handle the new frightening world unfolding around them. Lots of corrupt politicians and underworld bosses who have found some supernatural benefactor to give them a helping hand. As the game has gone on they uncover more and more the real behind the scenes powers at work.

So we started at 6 refresh. However, I have them on an accelerated advancement scheme: 1 adventure per in game year, 1 major milestone per adventure (an adventure takes us 3-5 sessions).

You just need to decide as a group what feel you are aiming for. Buffy the vampire is going to be a low refresh game, eventually scaling up. Dresden files is obviously going to be a high refresh game. You get a very different experience depending on how you set it up.

Typically I'd say no. Changing a person is described as being so total you might as well call it murder. The mind is gone, the soul is distorted, they ARE a dog, not a transformed person.

As has been brought up, you could certainly make more elaborate scenarios where the mind/soul was in tact, but if you start doing that your just defeating the point of the discussion.

In regards to "always on":

Always on items do exist, the question is how much are they allowed to effect the story? The Dresden Files RPG focuses on story mechanics, not physical ones. Fate points and stunts largely represent controlling how much someone can interact with the story.

Lets use Dresdens duster for an example. It is always enchanted with defensive spells, this doesn't change. However, it doesn't come up in the story every time he is attacked. It comes up, say, 3-4 times per story. It is still there, still enchanted, possibly helping in a fluffy way (man, if I hadn't had my duster on that fight might have been much worse), but only effects the story 3-4 times.

Now we look at that same item from an in game perspective. It has 3 uses, so it can come up in the story 3 times. The player can then exercise their story control (fate points) to allow it to be used more times. It is still magic, still working, but has no mechanical, story benefit beyond 3 times.

So your players can have magical protective auras, supurlatively sharp swords, and glasses that pierce illusions, and those things may be always active. However, their uses and fate points effect how many times they may effect the story per session.

Martial Arts Apprentice of a French Warden who never seems to be around, head this warning. You SHALL NOT READ!!!

Now that that is out of the way...This is a one part fluff/mechanic question and one part advice request.
Background
My players were fighting some...Well they figured they were either Renfields or Zombies. It turned out there were more traditional Voodoo style zombies, i.e. people drugged up to follow orders. Mindless, but still people.

To defend his friends our wizards apprentice crushed the last one into a gooey paste. I checked and double checked with him, and he was adamant he was not only going to take them out, but kill them if he could. He didn't think they were humans, but if they were he decided his character didn't think so and would act accordingly. I applaud his commitment to his character.

So now he is a lawbreaker, at 7 refresh (6 at the time). Long story short, he is currently working through a trial for the council to avoid his imminent demise. It was self defense after all.
Question
Lawbreaker is a pretty horrible thing to have over your head at 7 refresh, and I'm not sure if it is deserved, though I think being tried as a warlock is. In regards to belief, he certainly believed he was killing zombies, or some sort of monster. However, he did choose to use deadly force without fully considering the situation, or the possible repercussions of his actions.

Any suggestions on how to handle this? Should I just let him take his medicine, or has he not broken the law in spirit, even if he did in action?

In regards to railroading:
Just remember to plan out situations, not stories. A GM is not an author or a playwright.

So for a traditional Dresden Files game, come up with a bad guy (or bad guys) and a scheme (or schemes). Come up with the groups, figure out some ways they are likely to react. Decide on some clues, i.e., holes in the plan that your players can exploit.

Do NOT come up with solutions, climatic battles, etc. Those should come about organically due to the choices of your players.

Don't worry too much about scaling situations to the players, the world doesn't work like that, and doesn't need to. Sometimes they have to approach situations with a bit more subtlety, creativity or finesse. Other times they will curbstomp their opposition. Both options are fun, as long as they are still given choices, e.g., they aren't just ambushed by a dragon.

As long as you are just presenting situations and allowing your players to interact with the world as they see fit, they will have a difficult time accusing you of railroading.

Sometimes aspects just seem a little too static, i.e. tagging "grandpa taught me to shoot" gives just as much a damage bonus as pushing someone into a jet engine and tagging the "jet engine", or
It feels like my players have little need to find effective aspects, they just need to find any aspect. Sure a more effective one might be more likely to get the GMs thumbs up, but it seems to encourage mediocre thinking, and makes aspects feel rather monotone. One thought I had was making some aspects be worth a bigger bonus, but I don't know if that is a good idea. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

This especially annoys me in combat. Why bother with explosions, pushing people in front of trains, and dropping buildings on people when you can just tag your primary aspect, a phase aspect, and some minor enviromental one like "slippery floor" and get the exact same effect?

Personally I'm not a big fan of white court vampires who 'feed' on something that isn't easily externally inflicted like lust, pain, or despair, especially when they feed ambiently. Having to feed off ambient energy was one of Thomas's major hinderances

Rember, typically white court vampires need to feed directly off of a single victim, pushing them further and further into their emotions, draining them of their emotional energy, often till the point of death. I have difficulty seeing gluttony being fed off in this manner. While the other emotions are self perpetuating, gluttony is not. While they might sponsor an enviroment that promotes the kind of energy they like, it isn't their primary method of feeding.

If such a group existed I would not imagine them 'feeding' off kids eating too much candy, that would be too diluted. They would have to isolate individuals, and incite them to eat literally to death. That I could see, though it just isn't subtle enough for my tastes, like pain, lust, and despair are.

So maybe I've misread something, but are backstabs and silent take-downs just impossible in this game? You know, short of nuking someone with magic or burning through 5 fate points to invoke tons of aspects.

Here is my understanding, please tell me if I'm missing something.:
To take out your average accountant you need to do 15 stress damage in 1 round. Lets assume you are a world class martial artist, so +5.
Maneuver to hide in shadows +2
Has a special takedown stunt +2
declare he is unaware and tag that +2
invoke special forces training +2
invoke darkness in building +2
And there is no margin of error here.

This seems excessive to take down an accountant, and most PCs wont have this level of specialization. And heaven help me if I want to ambush a PC. There has to be a better way to go solid snake on a bunch of mooks. Last game I basically just did concessions for the mooks, but I wasn't very happy with it. Any ideas on how to handle these situations?