DUI Teen Kills Four, Gets Probation

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Kraichgauer
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15 Dec 2013, 12:09 am

Dox47 wrote:

Somewhere, a lawyer is thinking "I can't believe that actually worked!". :lol:

I'm with GS and Walrus on this one, BTW, reforming the kid is more important that punishment, but the "afluenza" thing is ridiculous.

Reforming the kid is one thing, but let's not forget the four lives he took - regardless of how unintentional that might have been on his part.

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lotuspuppy
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15 Dec 2013, 12:50 am

This verdict sends such a bad message to both other killers and the affluent: you can get off if you have enough money. We should have locked this kid up and thrown away the key for the heinous crime he committed.

Dox47
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15 Dec 2013, 2:35 am

lotuspuppy wrote:

We should have locked this kid up and thrown away the key for the heinous crime he committed.

And destroy five lives instead of four? For the "heinous crimes" of underage drinking and extraordinarily bad judgment? What possible good would come of that?

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Dox47
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15 Dec 2013, 2:42 am

Kraichgauer wrote:

Reforming the kid is one thing, but let's not forget the four lives he took - regardless of how unintentional that might have been on his part.

I've always struggled with how to deal with negligence "crimes", acts better characterized as accidents, bad judgment, incompetence, and even some recklessness, rather than malicious or intentionally harmful acts. The kid didn't decide to kill four people, he decided to drink and drive, which is irresponsible, but isn't the same thing as willfully doing harm, and is done by millions of people every year without anyone being hurt. I do want to see some punishment, but I don't think a life needs to be destroyed over it, especially such a young one.

I always think of a local case where a young woman was blinded by a piece of furniture that came through her windshield after breaking loose from a trailer being towed by a young man, and the popular outcry that there was no way to charge the man with anything; I kept thinking 'is not knowing how to tie a proper knot now illegal?', but I guess the punitive impulse just runs deep in some people.

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beneficii
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15 Dec 2013, 4:33 am

The same judge sentenced a 14-year old black boy to life without the possibility of parole for not killing anybody:

http://www.brothersonsports.com/affluen ... g-anybody/

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GoonSquad
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15 Dec 2013, 9:55 am

^^^ I'm not going to defend the current system where the poor go to prison and the rich go to rehab, but no matter how rotten the system is, two wrongs still don't make a right.

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The_Walrus
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15 Dec 2013, 10:26 am

lotuspuppy wrote:

We should have locked this kid up and thrown away the key for the heinous crime he committed.

The maximum sentence for manslaughter committed by a minor is 2 years. The judge has potentially sentenced him to 10 years.

beneficii wrote:

The same judge sentenced a 14-year old black boy to life without the possibility of parole for not killing anybody:

http://www.brothersonsports.com/affluen ... g-anybody/

The link has been taken down.

I tried to find a link to another site hosting the story, but could only find mentions of it on reddit. One of the top comments said it referred to this story: http://www.thv11.com/news/article/26204 ... nile-crime

... which was not the same judge, and was a mandatory sentence. Whilst mandatory sentences in the US are stupid (seemingly more so than in other countries, though this is by no means a problem exclusive to the US), it isn't fair to blame the judge when they have no other choice.

The same judge did sentence a black 14 year old to prison for a one-punch murder. Here's the whole story (taken from a longer article): http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Decision ... 88241.html

Quote:

But, News 8 discovered the same judge sent a 14-year-old black boy to prison in March 2012 for killing one person with a powerful punch to the ground in 2011.

The teenage suspect’s name was never made public since he was prosecuted as a juvenile.

"Just after 10 p.m. on October 6, the teen was riding in a Cadillac with two friends when he suddenly jumped out of the vehicle in the 1700 block of Vaughn Avenue and punched [Mark] Gregory, who was 5-foot-1 and weighed 106 pounds,” said the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office in a statement. "Gregory’s head struck the pavement and he died two days later."

The 14-year-old boy admitted to the crime and never expressed remorse for the murder, according to prosecutors.

Still, Gregory’s mother, Anita Lauterbach, said she remembers the judge pushing for rehabilitation, much like the Couch case.

"She wanted to send him to one of these special places in Arizona, but no one would take him," Lauterbach said. "We were horrified. We just couldn't believe it. The district attorney and I were just sitting on pins and needles. But, when nobody would take him, [it was] a sigh of relief."

So she tried to get the one-punch murderer sent to a reform place too.

GoonSquad
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15 Dec 2013, 10:39 am

^^^ There's a HUGE DIFFERENCE between assaulting someone when you are sober and doing ANYTHING when you are completely wasted.

I'm sure that kid did not mean to kill anybody either, but he certainly did act with malice and did mean to do harm.

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lotuspuppy
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15 Dec 2013, 11:33 am

Dox47 wrote:

lotuspuppy wrote:

We should have locked this kid up and thrown away the key for the heinous crime he committed.

And destroy five lives instead of four? For the "heinous crimes" of underage drinking and extraordinarily bad judgment? What possible good would come of that?

Deterrence. Based on the special circumstances surrounding Mr. Couch's position, I think he would need the maximum allowed by law to serve as an example. It would be a small but vital step to counterbalance the narrative that poor blacks and Hispanics get off worse than rich white folks.

GGPViper
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15 Dec 2013, 11:36 am

I am confident that the state of Texas - already famous for its unprecedented outreach to the poor - will now start handing down much more lenient sentences to young impoverished offenders of all kinds.

After all, they are all clearly suffering from Destitutitis.

The_Walrus
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15 Dec 2013, 12:08 pm

GGPViper wrote:

I don't think they will do, but they should do.

If nothing else, consistency is important and will stop poor (and particularly ethnic minority) youths from feeling even more disenfranchised.

Then these sorts of sentences are just outright what we should be doing, IMO.

GoonSquad
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15 Dec 2013, 1:05 pm

lotuspuppy wrote:

Dox47 wrote:

lotuspuppy wrote:

We should have locked this kid up and thrown away the key for the heinous crime he committed.

And destroy five lives instead of four? For the "heinous crimes" of underage drinking and extraordinarily bad judgment? What possible good would come of that?

Deterrence. Based on the special circumstances surrounding Mr. Couch's position, I think he would need the maximum allowed by law to serve as an example. It would be a small but vital step to counterbalance the narrative that poor blacks and Hispanics get off worse than rich white folks.

It won't work.

No kid takes their first drink of the night thinking it could possibly lead to manslaughter. Their brains simply aren't wired that way.

And making things less just for whites?

Why don't we try to make things more just for everyone instead?

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GGPViper
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15 Dec 2013, 1:10 pm

Oh, the sarcasm is coming out of the woodwork now...

Next criminal defense... Negrobetes!

Why not go all the way and acquit everyone who ate Twinkies before committing a crime?

beneficii
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15 Dec 2013, 1:15 pm

GoonSquad wrote:

lotuspuppy wrote:

Dox47 wrote:

lotuspuppy wrote:

We should have locked this kid up and thrown away the key for the heinous crime he committed.

And destroy five lives instead of four? For the "heinous crimes" of underage drinking and extraordinarily bad judgment? What possible good would come of that?

Actually, I'd rather make things less for everybody, especially kids.

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GoonSquad
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15 Dec 2013, 1:57 pm

beneficii wrote:

Actually, I'd rather make things less for everybody, especially kids.

Quote:

In the morning they throw men to the lions and the bears; at noon, they throw them to the spectators. ~Seneca, Book I, Epistle VII

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beneficii
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15 Dec 2013, 1:59 pm

GoonSquad wrote:

beneficii wrote:

Actually, I'd rather make things less for everybody, especially kids.

Quote:

In the morning they throw men to the lions and the bears; at noon, they throw them to the spectators. ~Seneca, Book I, Epistle VII

OK. I'm not sure how this related to my point, but OK.

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