# Affluenza defense? Are you kidding me?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affluenza-defense-are-you-kidding-me/676229>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [December 13, 2013, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affluenza-defense-are-you-kidding-me/676229 "2013-12-13T07:19:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Grey\_area](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Grey\_area](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey_area)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affluenza-defense-are-you-kidding-me/676229/1 "2013-12-13T07:19:17Z")

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A rich kid gets 10 years of probation for driving drunk that led to the death of four after a defense of a shitty upbringing of being a spoiled brat basically. Just type “affluenza” into a search engine and you’ll get dozens of articles regarding this incident.

Are you fucking kidding me? What about every fucking inner city kid in prison? I guess because they didn’t have the burdens of endless wealth and freedom ruining their childhood, they deserve every minute of their sentence.

I am at a loss. There has to be more to this. Kudos to the defense lawyer, if I ever get in trouble with the law, I want that guy on my side.

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**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affluenza-defense-are-you-kidding-me/676229/2 "2013-12-13T07:23:10Z")

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Somebody beat you to it.

[Pit thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=710218)

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**Author:** ![Grey\_area](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Grey\_area](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey_area)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affluenza-defense-are-you-kidding-me/676229/3 "2013-12-13T08:00:28Z")

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Ah.

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affluenza-defense-are-you-kidding-me/676229/4 "2013-12-13T16:58:26Z")

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[“If This Rich Kid Has ‘Affluenza,’ Then We’ve All Got ‘Negrobetes’.”](http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2013/12/if_this_rich_kid_suffers_from_affluenza_we_ve_all_got_negrobetes.html)

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**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affluenza-defense-are-you-kidding-me/676229/5 "2013-12-14T08:47:49Z")

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I hope the next of kin walk the transcripts from the trial right into the courts for a civil wrongful death suit against the parents who basically paid an attorney to state for the public record that the deaths of those four people were the parent’s fault.

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**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affluenza-defense-are-you-kidding-me/676229/6 "2013-12-14T17:21:22Z")

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Just so everyone is on the same page, this is not a defense. It was not used as an argument against guilt. It was presented as a mitigating factor at sentencing.