http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Al72R4SKxecOgNMgVAymGcY5nYcB?slug=ap-angelspitcherkilled
I’m all for punishing drunk driving, but 51 to life? Any legal dopers care to comment on why this is murder? IANAL, but I thought murder had to do with intentional, malicious, premeditated killings. Drunk driving deaths are more like manslaughter, no?
The driver had a previous felony DUI conviction and was on probation for same.
Murder can be charged if the actions were known to be dangerous and could result in a death.
I’m sorry the guy threw his life away by doing something stupid, but he gets no sympathy from me on the murder charge. Gallo got his first DUI conviction when he was 18 - so he was drinking and driving when he wasn’t even old enough to drink legally. Wouldn’t you think he would be extra cautious when you’re drinking and underage? Guess not. Anyway he was convicted of a felony and got probation and mandatory counseling. That’s legally relevant because they make a point of telling you that DUIs kill people so you can’t say later that you didn’t know the consequences of your actions. (I don’t think it applies to him in particular, but I think some district attorneys now make sure people who get busted for DUI sign a card stating they are aware they could be charged with murder if they do it again and kill someone.) So four years after all that, Gallo not only drank and drove, he got falling-down drunk at multiple bars and got into an accident that killed three people.
There’s nothing accidental about running a red light doing 65. He didn’t get accidentally drunk. He didn’t accidentally get into his car which then accidentally set off down the freeway with him in the driver’s seat. It’s certainly no accident that he’ll be spending the rest of his sorry life in prison.
This. I generally believe that American criminal sentences are excessively severe, but I’m entirely in favor of harsh sentences for drunk driving. It’s an act of such insane irresponsibility that it actually frightens me more than premeditated murder. I mean, I’m pretty sure that I haven’t given anyone cause to wish me dead - I’m pretty safe on the premeditated murder front. But a drunk driver? Hell, I could be walking along in Adams Morgan or Dupont Circle, talking to a friend, and get hit just like that.
And the kicker is that it’s just so easy to avoid drunk driving. I mean, don’t do it. Hell, I get drunk on a regular basis - arguably more often than I should. But you know what? I take public transit to the bar, and I take public transit home. If I’ve missed the last train or bus, I take a cab. You couldn’t pay me enough to drive after even a couple of beers, and I don’t understand folks who feel otherwise.
I agree with you about all that, but unless you think he hit Adenhart’s car on purpose, I think it’s fair to describe the crash part as an accident.
Depending on the state, unintentional but extremely reckless homicide can be charged as murder - at common law it’s called depraved heart murder.
It’s worth noting that his prior conviction that he was on either parole or probation for (I’ve heard it reported both ways) was a felony DWI, which means he’d either injured somebody before or that was his fourth, most likely the latter. When you kill three people and cripple a fourth person on DWI number five, and have a BAC of three times the limit, you can expect to get the book thrown at you.
I think it would have been reported more prominently if it was his fourth DUI. Here’s one version of the guy’s history:
When he plead guilty to that DUI, he had to sign a statement that said this:
So this asshole flaunts the law and drives not only without a license but drunk as well, and were supposed to feel sorry that this waste of skin actually gets a reasonable punishment for risking such a catastrophe?
Serial drunk drivers don’t let little things like a suspended license or probation spoil their fun. They just keep at it until they get put away or kill themselves.
Maybe its not about punishment or what he deserves. I have long since given up on the idea that people can be reformed. If you want someone to improve his life for the better, prison is not the environment for it to happen. Nor is what he “deserves” particularly relevant. What he deserves, IMHO, is not legal under our laws, though I’m not suggesting dismissing those laws.
The real point is this: It is incumbent on the state to protect its citizens. It maintains a standing army, regulates the practice of medicine, requires licensure for the operation and possession of things like explosives, radioactive materiels, motor vehicles, etc. The state is helpless to protect its populace from this idiot’s running a car into them unless it puts him behind bars. He has proven himself impervious to threats of incarceration, fines, lectures, rehab programs. He has had a chance, a second chance, who knows how many more chances.
Our prisons should be filled with this kind of guy. Not punishment, not rehabilitation, storage. A special kind of toxic-waste containment facility, housing the most dangerous substance in our society. A human being who persistently acts without the least regard for the safety of himself or others.:mad:
it also said this:
On looking around, that does appear to be the case. If that’s so, he either injured somebody in his first one, or the reports that he was on probation for felony DWI are possibly in error.
Too bad for him.
There are far too many people in prison for silliness like possessing drugs. Let them out and refill the cells with drunk drivers.
A richly-deserved sentence for this meatbag. Buh-bye.
He was repeatedly grossly irresponsible until he killed someone. He’d been warned, repeatedly. Really, I can’t think of a better justification for sending someone to prison than locking away someone who has demonstrated an inability to move through society without endangering the lives of others
He drove drunk on purpose, and any fool knows that drunk driving kills people.
Yes he did, and I think he can all agree this guy was a world class fool.