Cliff Notes Version: 17 year old with no license takes dad’s car on a joyride and kills a 4 year old when he tries to run from police who were stopping him for a traffic violation. He’s been arrested 2x since then, once for looting a dead lady’s apartment and once for driving illegally again (this time dragging a cop 100 feet when stopped for an illegal u-turn). Judge says he’ll be offered 3-9 years in prison and his mom, who had been banned from the courtroom, is dragged out screaming that there is no justice.
She’s right, there is no justice. This POS should get 20 years. Thoughts?
This is a tough situation. Remember back to your days as a 17 year old, how many foolish things did you partake in? I for one, took my parents car out for a joy ride before i was 16, drove drunk on a few occassions during my high school year, and many other things i was fortunate enough never to get caught. My point is, at the age of 17 you are not mature and do not truly comprehend the repercussions of bad decisions like an adult would. It’s a horrible horrible outcome, and my heart goes out to those parents, but 9 years i think is excessive.
The counter to this is acting as a deterrent to future kids. The question remains if 9 years will act as a deterral or, as i suspect, kids will be kids and continue to do dumb things.
This kid should be put away for 20. He killed someone’s 4 year old and then instead of showing an ounce of remorse (which ANY normal 17 year old would feel) he did the same thing again and dragged a police officer 100 ft. He also got arrested for looting a dead lady’s apartment. Put him away before he kills someone else.
So you think if you killed a four year old you wouldn’t have been phased?
Because the trial as a juvenile option was taken away after he went and got arrested three more times before his trial for equally stupid feats. I never dragged a police officer or killed a four year old, or robbed a dead lady’s apartment so I guess I’m just having a hard time relating.
This is the only thing that would give me pause as a judge or prosecutor. The deck is clearly stacked against this kid and prison, regardless of the term, is only going to make him worse. The fact that he chose to drive illegally again while out of bail would make my pause go away though.
Yeah, this dude deserves to do some time…he’s only 17, but it seems like he has the makings of a lifelong criminal. His dad helped him loot the dead woman’s apartment, according to the article. So, if he gets off he will learn nothing and if he goes in he will get out and start hustling small time crap with his dad. Sh!tty role of the dice and even sh!ttier decision making.
I actually took the time to read the article in full, something i didnt do before making my statement. I want to recall my statement and appologize for wasting some of your time. He does show all the necessary signs of a lifelong criminal and has the pedigree to back it up. The multiple crimes, especially given the order of said crimes, shows he has little remose - something i find most appauling.
There was a 16 yr old kid in Texas that took his dad’s company truck out and killed and injured a handful of people and got probation. Now that’s injustice.
This creates a burden to society either way. If the guy goes to jail for 20 years, he will drain taxpayer resources for that whole time, and then exit and probably have no useful productivity potential. If the guy goes free, he will probably work in some capacity, thus contributing to society in some way. However, he will probably also commit some other crime in the future.
I think there should be some goal of making all prisons economically self sustainable. Make the prisoners assemble LCDs or something. The prisoners will get useful skills and job recommendations, prisons will be less of a burden on the financial system, and we can say all this stuff is “made in the US”. So, it’s a win-win-win.
^ There is a youth prison near me that used to have an upholstery shop and they would take projects from anyone willing to drop their stuff off at the prison and pick it up again. They did nice work and only charged for materials. The inmates learned a useful skill and I got some really nice wingback chairs. The guy who ran it retired though and they haven’t been able to replace him.
I’d rather not try to make prisons self-sustainable. We don’t want too much slave labor.
I also hate the idea of privatizing government’s essential functions like prisons (which many counties do), war (using contractors) while the government pokes its nose into what should be private sector concerns like deciding which banks should fail and bailing out car makers. It’s topsy-turvy.