I am unconvinced she is even truly remorseful, with her statement that “This **may **all be my fault.”
I read it, but misinterpreted it. The article said she killed two best friends, and I thought they meant “her” best friends that were in the car with her. So yes, given that, I’m actually OK with a 24 year sentence.
I thought the friends were in the car with her, too - the article was badly worded. That makes it quite a bit worse, I feel.
Yeah, but it’s Florida. If she’d used a gun she would have beat the case.
I agree with this completely. Or, as one of my friends has put it more succinctly, “They weren’t drunk when they started drinking.”
Should the penalty for driving drunk depend on whether somebody gets killed?
Once somebody chooses to drink and then chooses (while intoxicated) to drive, how does also killing somebody without intending to hurt them change one’s guilt?
How would we feel about a 1 or 5 or 24 year sentence for first offense drunk driving?
How do we feel about bars having parking lots?
I think that 24 years is too long, but 3-5 years is way too short.
About 25 years ago, my best friend was killed in a head on accident with a drunk driver at the age of 17. Other people in the car lived through the accident but their lives were irreparably changed (shattered legs, severe head injuries, etc…). The drunk driver got 5 years and was paroled after ~3 years IIRC. I remember the day he got out; all our lives were still a wreck and the wounds he gave to us still felt fresh. I was tempted to find him and extract more punishment. Now though, 25 years later, I find that I have long ago forgiven him. I have not talked to my friend’s mother in ~15 years, but I would bet that even her aches have faded. If you did a poll and asked all of us if the guy should still be in jail today, I believe the majority of us would answer in the negative.
25 years is too long. 5 years is too short. 10 to 12 years feels about right from my experience. YMMV.
Why not? She committed murder. Would you object to 24 years if she had shot the people instead of killing them with her car?
What if she texted somebody while driving and got in a head on accident that killed two people due to her inattention. Would this be murder in your eyes and deserving of 24 years in prison?
Would the victim be any less dead? Twenty-four years seems excessive to me but whether drunk driving or texting, I think both are criminally negligent acts that are worthy of fifteen years.
Being involved in a fatal accident removes any possibility of doubt of her guilt. Even if two people do the exact same stupid thing, it’s a lot easier to prove that one was acting dangerously if their stupidity leaves lasting evidence. It’s far more reasonable to throw the book at someone when you find them at the scene of a crash they caused than if you find them sleeping it off in their parked car and just assume without evidence that they have been driving drunk.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: Excuse me while I push my eyeballs back into my head.
She didn’t commit murder. She drove drunk and the result was the death of two people. 24 years in jail for that is draconian.
How many people is she allowed to kill through sheer sociopathic disregard for innocent bystanders and the law before we are justified in rendering her incapable of killing anyone else? Why are we supposed to consider her choice to illegally drug herself into a stupor a mitigating factor in her crimes?
Fifteen. Fifteen sounds like a good arbitrary number.
That is a joke, right?
Not sure about Clothahump’s, but it certainly would be would in mine.
Dude - I think you have a bit of a vested interest in commenting on such things
10 - 12 x 2 people comes to 24 years, just nice…
I don’t think a 5-year sentence would send much of a strong message at all. A 24-year sentence, on the other hand, makes people go “whoa.”