07-08-2015, 01:11 PM
(07-08-2015, 12:51 PM)fredtoast Wrote: I think your problem is that you are not seeing the difference between "being held responsible" and "being a criminal".
No one is saying that she should not be held responsible for killing someone else. If she was negligent then she should be held responsible in a civil wrongful death action.
But criminal activity is not the same as accidents. People have accidents all the time. They drop things. They spill things. They trip over things. In fact I'll bet even YOU have done some of these things. No one is perfect. But this is not criminal activity. This is not the type of stuff that the criminal justice system was set up to address. If a person trips and falls down some stairs while carrying a baby he should not be treated the same way as a murderer.
There are times when negligence can lead to criminal charges. Like if she was texting while driving or if a person is shitfaced drunk while carrying a baby down some stairs. But in general accidents are not the same as crimes.
I understand what you're saying, and I'm in agreement with a good bit of it. I do realize that criminal activity isn't the same as an accident, and I've definitely tripped over things and spilled things in my life.
I guess my point is, if the guy on the motorcycle was just sitting there doing nothing at all wrong, then she is absolutely at fault for SOME reason. Either she did it on purpose or else she was doing something that distracted her enough to run over a person that isn't moving on a motorcycle. I honestly don't understand how this can be chalked up as an "accident" when you hit a stationary object with your car. Was there a lot of ice on the road in the middle of July in Columbia Township? If not, I don't see how it was an "accident" of any sort, and a person has died as a result of her actions.
If I spill my coffee and nothing terrible results from it, no foul. If I spill my coffee because I'm distracted doing literally anything else and it directly results in the death of the person next to me, what should happen? You don't hit a stationary motorcycle with your car unless you're distracted, there's no accident here.
