This is mind bending.......

[LesBaker]

This kid just walked away from this. Read the article, you'll wonder what world we live in.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/11/us/texas-teen-dwi-wreck/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

So the judge says the kids problem is that his parents never set limits and because of the family's wealth the kid was too privileged and ......and then didn't put him in jail after he stole a bunch of beer and got drunk and killed four people.

Therefore proving that the kid was right.

This judge should be tossed out of court and never allowed back in.

I bet a flurry of appeals will be hitting the court system in TX, every poor person from a violent neighborhood who has been convicted of a crime will be lining up to say what they did was normal in their neighborhood and so they shouldn't be jailed for whatever it was that they did.

 

[superfan24]

Absolutely ridiculous

 

[fearsomefour]

Pretty crazy. The psych profession has done more damage to our country/culture than anything that comes to my mind. Anyone who thinks that money doesnt matter in the justice system is delusional.
All of that said at the end of the day the sentence is meaningless outside of it being a bad ruling. Was justice served? No. If the kid got 20 years would it change anything for anyone involved? No. Closure does not exist at least not through the justice system. That is a lie told to us by pretty faced newscasters so we can all go on with our own business without feeling so bad about people who had their lives destroyed. The best we can hope for is a system that is fair, do we have that, probably not enough of the time.
Just my opinion

 

[LesBaker]

Pretty crazy. The psych profession has done more damage to our country/culture than anything that comes to my mind. Anyone who thinks that money doesnt matter in the justice system is delusional.
All of that said at the end of the day the sentence is meaningless outside of it being a bad ruling. Was justice served? No. If the kid got 20 years would it change anything for anyone involved? No. Closure does not exist at least not through the justice system. That is a lie told to us by pretty faced newscasters so we can all go on with our own business without feeling so bad about people who had their lives destroyed. The best we can hope for is a system that is fair, do we have that, probably not enough of the time.
Just my opinion

This case illustrates your point and I will go a step further.

I'd bet that the judge is thinking the kid has suffered enough and will be regretting this his whole life and that's punishment enough. I just get that vibe from it and that's effed up.

 

[LosAngelesRams]

so lets go easy on him after he kills 4 people because his parents have always been easy on him. makes perfect sense.... MY DICK! :jerkoff:

 

[Thordaddy]

I smelll a bribe

 

[Mister Sin]

There are a lot of public servants that need removed from their position.

 

[BigHornRAMM]

This is almost not even believable. As someone said earlier, if this kid got 20 years would they parents somehow feel better? Lives were in fact destroyed. The amount of his sentence wont bring them back.. And unless he is a psychopath he will have to carry this and live with this the rest of his life and it will be a terrible Burdon to bear.

Still - with all of that said. This judge, this entire case should be looked into.

 

[LesBaker]

This is almost not even believable. As someone said earlier, if this kid got 20 years would they parents somehow feel better? Lives were in fact destroyed. The amount of his sentence wont bring them back.. And unless he is a psychopath he will have to carry this and live with this the rest of his life and it will be a terrible Burdon to bear.

Still - with all of that said. This judge, this entire case should be looked into.

Are you saying he shouldn't do time in prison for this?

 

[Selassie I]

What a terrible tragedy. Heart breaking.

The sentence certainly doesn't fit the crime. I know a guy who killed one person in a wreck he caused while driving drunk when he was a minor. He had his driving privileges taken away for life... He can NEVER drive a car legally (he's almost 40 years old now). He served time as well, and I believe he is still on probation to this day.

Fucked Up.

 

[LosAngelesRams]

This is almost not even believable. As someone said earlier, if this kid got 20 years would they parents somehow feel better? Lives were in fact destroyed. The amount of his sentence wont bring them back.. And unless he is a psychopath he will have to carry this and live with this the rest of his life and it will be a terrible Burdon to bear.

Still - with all of that said. This judge, this entire case should be looked into.

a crime is a crime, you do the time for the crime you commit, end of story. this kids parents got him a good lawyer and psychiatrist to find a loop hole and keep there baby safe. bullshit.

 

[fearsomefour]

a crime is a crime, you do the time for the crime you commit, end of story. this kids parents got him a good lawyer and psychiatrist to find a loop hole and keep there baby safe. bullshit.

This kind of started with what I said about the justice system being, in a lot of ways, a crock. Usually the first thing a DA is going to look at is, is the case winnable. Before they consider what is right and wrong they want to know if they can win. They are elected and you are not going to win an election post a 50% win rate. Money should not play a role in justice but it does. Special interests or self serving "experts", who are usually paid, should not play a role, but they do. This is why the prisons are full of people of weed arrests and someone like this gets no time. It is nonsense. There are, in my opinion, just as many shady prosecutors and there are shady defense lawyers.
The other point I was making was the amount of time this kid should have gotten is sort of irrelavant. I think he certainly should have gotten some prison time. He made the choice to drink and drive. Ten years? Twenty years? Life? Five years with 10 years of service after that? My point was the notion that the justice system offers comfort or closure for victims. It does not because it can not. In reality that is not its function. The justice system sort of operates in a vacuum.
The defense the shrink raised is laughable on its face. The judge is basically saying this kid cannot distinguish right from wrong (a sociopath?), that alone would confirm he is a danger to society. So, I think everyone would agree (probably even the kid and his parents if they were being honest) he deserves to get time. The amount of time 10 years or 20 or whatever doesnt matter really, because there is no evening of the scales.

 

[LosAngelesRams]

This kind of started with what I said about the justice system being, in a lot of ways, a crock. Usually the first thing a DA is going to look at is, is the case winnable. Before they consider what is right and wrong they want to know if they can win. They are elected and you are not going to win an election post a 50% win rate. Money should not play a role in justice but it does. Special interests or self serving "experts", who are usually paid, should not play a role, but they do. This is why the prisons are full of people of weed arrests and someone like this gets no time. It is nonsense. There are, in my opinion, just as many shady prosecutors and there are shady defense lawyers.
The other point I was making was the amount of time this kid should have gotten is sort of irrelavant. I think he certainly should have gotten some prison time. He made the choice to drink and drive. Ten years? Twenty years? Life? Five years with 10 years of service after that? My point was the notion that the justice system offers comfort or closure for victims. It does not because it can not. In reality that is not its function. The justice system sort of operates in a vacuum.
The defense the shrink raised is laughable on its face. The judge is basically saying this kid cannot distinguish right from wrong (a sociopath?), that alone would confirm he is a danger to society. So, I think everyone would agree (probably even the kid and his parents if they were being honest) he deserves to get time. The amount of time 10 years or 20 or whatever doesnt matter really, because there is no evening of the scales.

I agree with you 100% my friend, its sad to say, but its true. Money should have no say so, The system just does not work the way it should at times.

 

[Ram Quixote]

This is truly insidious. This spoiled child defense is tailor made for 1%ers. If you ain't got money, the defense won't fly.

 

[CGI_Ram]

This sort of reminds me of the cases against cops for using excessive force or shooting a crook in the middle of a bad situation.

My take; you run from a cop, or put yourself in a situation that they draw their gun... You accept the consequences.

This judge is an idiot. Wow!

 

[Thordaddy]

Bribe I say

 

[BonifayRam]

My experience tells me this kid will be back into the system very shortly. I spent a lifetime over 3 1/2 decades in a career in Criminal Justice System...The septic of this CJS is the prisons where in truth really bad humans do what they do best.

As far as the prison being full of weed arrest well I would contend that may be true in a very few cases but mostly its full of REPEAT offenders who just will not conform or follow any rules that most normal societies demand. They have a pennant for hurting others who happen to come in contact with them..be it family or strangers.....as I have seen like in this case they start very very young & come from all types of families. Drugs & booze are never acceptable defenses for me but they are often the case...learning young to make proper decisions & being held to their bad decisions is the parents job ...a big issue that is growing just like the US debt chart is the failure of parents to do what parents are suppose to do when they bring children into this world....& when they fail & they are failing their children & society at a alarming rate here....we turn to the over burden CJS to do the job the parents failed in....we have just seen a bunch of people who have done their jobs poorly. Shouldn't we hold parents more accountable to society for their vast failures?

So sad & hate to sat this... but most will never do right & thus we have a very large growing US prison population. This judges actions IMO are way out of line but it has happen before.[hl] Mark [/hl]my words you have not heard the last from this kid.

 

[ram29jackson]

he's 16 and not a large criminal history. there isn't much of an argument for prison or even juvee in his case or age.

its his age keeping him from too much enforced laws. Any similar case to compare to ?

 

[fearsomefour]

My experience tells me this kid will be back into the system very shortly. I spent a lifetime over 3 1/2 decades in a career in Criminal Justice System...The septic of this CJS is the prisons where in truth really bad humans do what they do best.

As far as the prison being full of weed arrest well I would contend that may be true in a very few cases but mostly its full of REPEAT offenders who just will not conform or follow any rules that most normal societies demand. They have a pennant for hurting others who happen to come in contact with them..be it family or strangers.....as I have seen like in this case they start very very young & come from all types of families. Drugs & booze are never acceptable defenses for me but they are often the case...learning young to make proper decisions & being held to their bad decisions is the parents job ...a big issue that is growing just like the US debt chart is the failure of parents to do what parents are suppose to do when they bring children into this world....& when they fail & they are failing their children & society at a alarming rate here....we turn to the over burden CJS to do the job the parents failed in....we have just seen a bunch of people who have done their jobs poorly. Shouldn't we hold parents more accountable to society for their vast failures?

So sad & hate to sat this... but most will never do right & thus we have a very large growing US prison population. This judges actions IMO are way out of line but it has happen before.[hl] Mark [/hl]my words you have not heard the last from this kid.

With the largest imprisoned population of western nations (based on % of population….basing this on some things I read several years ago, dont know if this is still true) there is clearly something wrong. Social issues and issues with the justice sytem both factor in IMHO. Looking at a specific case and speaking in general terms (we are all doing this) is sort of tough. Maybe drunk driving is different, maybe it is not. I know a kid who is 18 who was arrested for breaking into homes (including mine) and stealing stuff. In talking to this kid in jail and since his release he certainly said all the right things (means nothing in reality) and managed to avoid jail time. These were not violent crimes (although I did tell him he is damn lucky he didnt get himself shot….he would basically see a home and knock on the door, if no one answered he would go in….seems like a great way to get shot) and he had no criminal history so he did not get jail time other than time served (several months). He was placed in a work program sort of place. Cool by me. I have even offered him help in terms of making sure he has rides/bus passes and whatever else so he doesnt miss his work requirements. His family history feeds right into this and he certainly was given a chance here to change without going to jail for a significant period of time. I would put the likelihood of him getting into trouble again as high. An interesting question is how to deal with these sorts of crimes. You cannot force someone to change or change their thought process. Frankly, the money and resources it takes to inprison every person convicted of non violent or property crime could probably be better spent in other ways.
The reality is most behavior is learned. Hard for people to learn new behaviors, sometimes….it takes determination ect. Not making excuses for people, but, prison is a bad investment of tax dollars for non violent offenders. Bonifay, as someone who worked in the system for decades, what is your take on this? In terms of dealing with people that are not yet repeat offenders, trying to prevent that from occurring?

 

[brokeu91]

First of all the person making this claim of "affluenza" was a psychologist not a psychiatrist. I am a psychiatrist and I don't know any psychiatrists who would have testified in favor of this kid in terms of "affluenza". I also know a lot of psychologists and they also would not have done this. Whoever this guy is he should never be allowed to testify again. "Affluenza" is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. So basically because the kid is rich and spoiled we should continue to spoil him was the gist of it. What kind of ridiculous argument was this. What kind of ridiculous judge allows this argument to be made and then sides with it? This is like the twinkie defense all over again. Maybe the kid was not going to get any time anyway and the media picks up on this as the reason why, I don't know, but it certainly does not seem fair. I will say this, if the brat was as spoiled as he was, and was never taught right from wrong, then maybe his parents should have to go to jail for not doing so. I mean, wouldn't that be the next logical conclusion based on this ridiculous "affluenza" claim?

It pisses me off for many reasons, not only because this rich brat got away with vehicular murder, but also it makes mental health defenses even weaker. I work in prisons, I've seen people with true mental health illness get convicted of crimes after they did something because their mind was playing tricks on them and they get sentenced to serve time. Some of the cases were minor violations (no-contact order violations) that occurred because they were psychotic and had to serve months. This kid literally kills people and gets away with it. It also pisses me off because the reverse would never be accepted. If some kid grew up in a poor neighborhood and was caught selling drugs, the argument that he did not have a father and lived in a neighborhood where there was no one teaching him right from wrong and that it was good to sell drugs would never work. I doubt he'd have enough money to afford the type of jack ass attorney and a psychiatrist to argue in his defense. But in fact, the poor kids arguments are empirically more valid than they shitty spoiled brat's argument. At least we have some studies backing up the hypothetical drug dealers arguments. There are no studies that verify "affluenza". It's just an argument that a brat came up with, because his parents had enough money to make the legal system look ridiculous.

There are many reasons why the US legal system is unfair, this is another example