Joined
·
1,224 Posts
But if I shot four people by accident, it would be assault with a deadly weapon. This is no different and should be treated as such.......
That's for a prosecutor, judge and jury to decide not LEO's.State Highway Patrol Capt. Kyle Ternes needs his chain yanked. The old bitty killed 1 and maimed 2, and he believes $20 is all those peoples pain is worth. Un-F$CKING-beleiveable. Somebody run over his kids and lets see if he's OK with a $20 fine on that.![]()
I'm pretty sure they could have written at least a reckless driving citation. That doesn't require approval of the prosecutor, judge or jury. (They will have their say later) She should have gotten one immediately, and then later the prosecutor should have to decide on filing more serious charges.That's for a prosecutor, judge and jury to decide not LEO's.
http://www.legis.nd.gov/cencode/t39c08.pdf39-08-03. Reckless driving - Aggravated reckless driving - Penalty. Any person is
guilty of reckless driving if the person drives a vehicle:
1. Recklessly in disregard of the rights or safety of others; or
2. Without due caution and circumspection and at a speed or in a manner so as to
endanger or be likely to endanger any person or the property of another.
Except as otherwise herein provided, any person violating the provisions of this section is guilty
of a class B misdemeanor. Any person who, by reason of reckless driving as herein defined,
causes and inflicts injury upon the person of another, is guilty of aggravated reckless driving, and
is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.
That or vehicular manslaughter. It's not murder, so the weakwilled won't go all frothy over charging this poor old woman with murder, but it's still a charge that someone died due to her actions, or inactions.At the very minimum I think she would have been charged with "Involuntary Manslaughter": is the unlawful killing of a human being without malice aforethought. It is distinguished from voluntary manslaughter by the absence of intention. It is normally divided into two categories; constructive manslaughter and criminally negligent manslaughter.
Disagree
Punishment should be higher for bad driving regardless of the outcome. No piling on because of who or how many were killed/maimed/scared/etc.
The point is to prevent bad driving, not to let lucky bad drivers off and throw unlucky bad drivers in jail to rot. The message then is "go ahead, drive bad, it's no biggie as long as no one gets off'ed."
I prefer the "don't drive bad ever" message.
It's prevention, not vengeance. Vengeance just makes the vengeful feel better - it doesn't prevent, because it's just a result of the "bad luck" of squishing a nun or whatever, not a certain result of being a crappy driver.
The hard part is that vengeance is so very American. It's our culture. We love it. Even when it doesn't work worth a damn.
Playing devils advocate here........what if someone shots off a round into the air at a B-B-Q or some other type gathering(nobody gets hurts). Should doing so carry the same charges as someone firing the gun in the air as opposed to firing it at your head? After all it basically boils down to a discharge of a gun. What about an accidental discharge......does that make anyone any less dead?
So do you charge the person with murder for shooting into the air, or let a murderer slip by with a fine for discharging a firearm?
I think the problem is the way in which one perceives law(s). On the whole there is a base line for trying to keep order(even though that gets pushed further and further everyday). Its not about a one size fits all. The worse an outcome is or the potential for a bad outcome the more stringent the repercussions are.