TN-Woman who was passenger in car, facing thirty years for drunk driving homicide.

[bxm042]

Ahem...



It's up to them, according to your logic.

Where have I said that someone who has harmed noone deserves to be thrown in a cage? Nowhere. I even clarified this specifically. Your accusation is entirely unfounded.

[MikeStanart]

Are you Effing kidding me???

[tttppp]

This woman made the fatal mistake you never want to make, talking to police. Whatever you do, you have to keep your mouth shut when police question you. Let your lawyer do the talking.

[Danke]

God bless ya for posting, AF.

every day.

injustice everywhere.

if you are questioned by cops... STFU.

But drunk people like to talk.

[Barrex]

She is guilty. Her boyfriend is guilty.
Law is clear about this.

[NCGOPer_for_Paul]

Are the pedestrians any more dead because the driver and the passenger were "drunk"?

What if the driver and the passenger were stone cold sober and the accident still happened? In that case, the DRIVER (or potentially the pedestrians themsevles) is responsible.

The point is, there's already a reckless driving statute in every one state. How about enforcing IT, and back off the "drunk" driving nonsense?

[tod evans]

To many laws when this is even a consideration.

We need to repeal laws NOT write more.

Less laws, less cops to enforce them, less lawyers to misinterpret them etc.

[PaulConventionWV]

Three felonies a day.



Vehicular Homicide by Proxy

http://www.theagitator.com/2012/03/0...cide-by-proxy/

Thursday, March 8th, 2012 This actually happened a few hundred feet from where I live, though I don’t remember hearing about it at the time. An intoxicated man apparently struck and killed two pedestrians at a roundabout, then collided with a taxi.

It’s a really poorly designed intersection. There’s a smooth, three-lane, one-way road that runs for about a mile, then stops abruptly at a roundabout with quite a bit of pedestrian traffic, especially at night. So people fly up the road, then zip around the circle without looking out for people crossing. It’s especially bad late at night when people coming home from the strip of bars on the street where this happened are probably in a state where they’re less prone to be looking out for cars. (I mean, so I’ve heard.)

Of course, poorly designed or not, it doesn’t excuse the this guy, who was apparently pretty drunk. He was been charged with vehicular homicide. I’m not sold on the appropriateness of that charge for drivers in these cases (although this guy didn’t help matters by fleeing the scene—twice).

But what happened to the guy’s girlfriend seems way over the top.


I’m okay with finding some civil liability for Brown, here. But it seems awfully excessive to take this woman’s life away from her for a split-second error in judgment that indirectly led to her boyfriend unintentionally striking and killing two people.



Brown apparently set herself up for the charge by telling police she gave her boyfriend the keys because he seemed “less drunk” than she was. So she basically admitted she knew he was intoxicated. (Again—never, ever talk to the police. Get an attorney.)

(I echo Balko here. If arrested or not SHUT THE FUCK AROUND COPS!!!! - AF)



But I wonder. What if she hadn’t made that statement? Could she have been charged if she should have known her boyfriend was drunk? How obviously drunk would he have needed to be? What if he was, say, just a hair above the legal limit? How much of a duty do you have to determine someone’s sobriety before you allow them to drive your car?

Seems to me that this is a pretty good example of “just because you can charge someone with a crime doesn’t mean you should.”

I'm assuming some tests of both of them were conducted to confirm that they were both intoxicated. If not, then there is no proof that they were, indeed, intoxicated. I'm not sure if that would help or hurt the sentence, however, so I'm not sure of the relevance there.

[PaulConventionWV]

Thank god she talked to the police, maybe those that died will get some justice.

I don't think it was her fault. The guy should definitely get a sentence, but I don't think she's in the wrong here. People died. It's sad, and they deserve justice, but the woman didn't do anything to kill them. If she hadn't let him have the keys, who's to say he wouldn't have taken them anyway? They were probably going to go home. While it was a poor decision on her part, it was his fault for taking the action. At least, I think she should get a lower sentence. I suppose there are such things as passive crimes, but this is over the top.

To clarify, with passive crimes, she would have actually had to see him commit aggression in order to be guilty of anything, but as it stands she is innocent except maybe on the personal conscience level.

Thirty years is just ridiculous, though. I've been in a car with a guy who had been drinking a little (not much at all, but still some) and he ran a red light. If he accidentally killed someone, I don't want to have to held responsible for his wrongdoing.

[Czolgosz]

Incarcerate many and sue everyone. Afterall, anybody associated must be culpable in some fashion or another. Land of the free.