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What does this say about the average person? You are nothing but a peasant! This crime is like the scene out of "A Tale of Two Cities" when a wealthy French landowner and Monarch runs over the son of a peasant with his horse and carriage and then throws a gold sovereign to the father as payment for his life. Is our society much different I wonder?
I think it was too lenient but the facts of the case do show he was not entirely at fault. The victim was in the road, not in a crosswalk when he was hit and his BAC was .12 which is legally "drunk" but certainly not "stumbling" drunk. The BAC limits in most of the country were .10 recently. Thirdly he stayed at the scene, tried to render aid and called 911 like he should. He accepted responsibility for it and has paid the family who, by the way, said they were fine with the sentence he got for it. And he can never drive a vehicle again. Still I think a year in detention should have been imposed.
good grief
the guy that died might think a little different about this
he was walking after an all night shift to catch a bus because he could not afford a car and this jerk spent all night drinking and now gets 30 days
he just shows that if you have money to can buy your way out of anything.
Was the judge right to sentence Donte Stallworth to 30 days of jail for driving while intoxicated and killing a pedestrian?
No it wasn't right! I don't care if they took away his license for life and house arrest?! But he can go play his games?! How is that house arrest?
The family did this because he gave them a ton of money. So it all boils down to cash. I wish we knew how much it was, apparently the life of a loved one has a price afterall.
17-year-old Laura Welch had run a stop sign, causing the death of the sole occupant of the vehicle hers had struck. According to that report, the future First Lady had been driving her Chevrolet sedan on a clear night shortly after 8 p.m. on 6 November 1963 when she entered an intersection without heeding the stop sign and there collided with the Corvair sedan driven by 17-year-old Michael Douglas. Also in the car with Laura Welch was a passenger, 17-year-old Judy Dykes.
How fast Miss Welch might have been driving is open to question. That part of the police report is illegible, although two biographies of the First Lady refer to her as having been going 50 mph at the time of the collision. The speed limit on that portion of road was 55 mph. According to the police report neither driver had been drinking, but no tests were performed. No charges were filed as a result of the accident.
Gee, no BAC tests? Smeared up speed on the police report? NO charges filed?
As some responses in this thread will indicate, we have sadly allowed ourselves in this country to become conditioned to a Pavlovian response of draconian vindictiveness against DUI's that are widely considered to be per se at a .08 BAC, even though the level of actual impairment implied is in the same range as what often results from talking on cellphones, taking various OTC drugs, getting 3 hours of sleep or less, or having recently lost a job, pet, or close family member. We single out even slight impairment via alcohol for massive punishments that actually accomplish nothing while excusing the same levels of impairment via other sources entirely. This is not sensible.
I am ever reminded of a case that occurred only a few miles from my house wherein a woman made a left turn only to be slammed into by an oncoming driver whose BAC was over the .08 BAC limit. The woman's toddler son was killed in the accident. At trial, the accident was shown to have been only the fault of the woman. She had simply failed to note the oncoming traffic. Testimony showed the defendant's driving had been ordinary in the minutes prior to the accident. Skid mark analysis showed that his reactions were not different from those of an unimpaired driver. He was cleared of all charges, and the local MADD people went berserk, claiming a murderer had been let loose into society.
No one endorses DUI. People need to take steps to avoid it. At the same time, both alcohol and driving are integral parts of life in this country. They can and do intersect, and society has every right and reason to control that intersection. There is, however, no right or reason to create a cure that is worse than the disease, and in many, many cases, that is exactly what we do...
Is there a condition that 50% of his salary goes toward rehab for people hit by drunk drivers?
Last edited by LuckyGem; 06-19-2009 at 09:27 AM..
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I wish we knew how much it was, apparently the life of a loved one has a price afterall. 
