Girl gets 30 days for drunken-driving death of woman/mother/wife

[Howie]

This is a tuff call.  The truth is a lot of us have driven in a very intoxicated condition and been lucky enough to make it home safely.  She didn't.  At some point society has to take action and hold the unlucky responsible so the same problem doesn't recurr as frequently.  30 days sufficient?  If she learned her lesson, yes.  If not, no.

[T-byrd]

In Germany if you get a DUI, you lose your license...for life.

Granted, towns are built differently over there.  Everything is pretty much within walking distance, or cycling distance.  Sort of eliminates the need for a car, really.

T

[SacDuc]

This is a tuff call.  The truth is a lot of us have driven in a very intoxicated condition and been lucky enough to make it home safely.  She didn't.  At some point society has to take action and hold the unlucky responsible so the same problem doesn't recurr as frequently.  30 days sufficient?  If she learned her lesson, yes.  If not, no.

I disagree. "Learning her lesson" is part of the equation. The other part is punishment. To make her suffer for the wrong she has does. 30 days in the pokey is not adequate suffering for being stupid and killing someone.  Yes that is a bit of "eye for an eye" kind of thinking. But I don't believe that immediate remorse and prior good behavior equal a lesson learned. In 5 years she may be thinking about ordering that third drink and she will rightfully be able to rationalize " hell I got make the beast with two backsed up and killed some lady and that didn't stop me from going to college, and getting a job and carrying on with life. Bottoms up."

Yet, our "criminal justice" system completely disregards rehabilitation to the point that sending someone to prison for any period of time is more or less like ensuring that person is going end up a career criminal. If this girl could suffer the hardships of prison but still work on a college degree or otherwise be productive then my point above stands. Lacking that perhaps it is better for us as a society to let her press on with what seems to be an otherwise productive life and tryst that she won't do it again. But if that was my wife I don't think I could bring myself to be that forgiving.

I'm torn. But I think a better penal system is what is lacking here. If there wasn't a "lock 'em up and forget about 'em" mentality and it was possible for people to actually pay for the mistakes/wrongs they've done without virtually destroying the possibility of them leading a decent honest life after they get out, then I would definitely say lock her up for a while.


sac

[Ducatista]

This is a tuff call.  The truth is a lot of us have driven in a very intoxicated condition and been lucky enough to make it home safely.  She didn't.  At some point society has to take action and hold the unlucky responsible so the same problem doesn't recurr as frequently.  30 days sufficient?  If she learned her lesson, yes.  If not, no.

Just because everyone does it, does that make it acceptable?  Everyone who has ever put their hands on the steering wheel while drunk should accept the consequences of their actions.  They know they are driving with reduced balance, reflexes, and judgment.  They should know that they are about to increase the chances of harm to themselves and others.  The choice they made that night has the possibility of tearing families apart.  My brother lost his license three times and deserved every one.  Fortunately for him and those around him, he only crashed his own car in each of the three incidents.  He does fully know and accept that he was taking others' lives into his hands, though.  He has since learned a better way to live his life. 

Aren't there cabs?  Isn't there a nice back seat in the car to sleep on until you're more sober?  If you have a roadster, you might be screwed in that department, but a stiff neck is better than murdering someone who just thought they were driving back from choir practice.

[He Man]

before you go hang out with your friends at a bar, you have the choice of cabbing there, or getting a sober friend to drive you there on to way, as a favor etc. When you start your engine and know you are going to drink, you have already gotten into the first step of committing a crime. Some of us know our limits of drinking. We maybe have 4 beers over the course of 3 hours and drive home safely. Others with the same amount could be spilled everywhere. Its a judgment call. Sadly not everyone can make that judgement when they are drunk, which is stupid because you should still be able to make a choice like that no matter how messed up you are).

In this case, I think she probably knew exactly what she was getting into. She has probably done this many times before and had no issues. Somethings I asked myself was, even if she did blow a .017 how impaired was she? Not that it matters, but i'd like to know just to try and understand what state of mind she was in when she made the choice to drive.

And finally her punishment. I agree, 30 days is NOT enough time to understand the consequences of her action. But you never know how something impacts someone. The judge in this case felt 30 days was enough time. But to me, 30 days goes by so quickly, you dont have time to sit and reflect. She needs to be in a correction facility for 6-12 months. Doing hard time wont help a situation like this. I've been at programs where drunk drivers who had killed people had to speak and discuss their incident at a school once a week for a whole semester. Some of them cried, some of them just looked down in shame. 

Now think of it this way, you throw this girl in jail for 5 years and just leave her locked up. She comes out depressed and shunned. She will either become a druggie, a useless person to society that bums around, or kill herself because she feels so bad about what she did.

What i'm trying to say is, you never know how someone reacts to a punishment. but 30 days behind bars isnt the right way to go about it, especially with someone whos only 17.