Pretend You are the Judge- Final Update: 18 years

[Fletch_W]

No jury, the defendant pleads no contest. No trial.

The defendant has zero prior arrests.

The following facts are neither disputed by the state nor the defense. These are the facts as both sides agrees.

1: The defendant was driving and SUV under the influence of alcohol at night, on the way home from a bar, on a 4-lane highway.

2: The victim fell off a motorcycle and rolled into oncoming traffic. The initial motorcycle accident was in no way a result of the defendant's actions.

3: The defendant rolled over the victim, unable to stop in time.

4: The victim is deceased, but it is inconclusive whether the victim died from the initial accident or from being ran over as a secondary consequence of falling off his/her motorcycle.

5: The defendant never crossed the center line. The victim's body rolled/bounced into the defendant's lane of traffic.

6: The defendant never stopped, the defendant never called the police.

7: The defendant is charged with, and pleads no contest to, DUI, hit and run, vehicular manslaughter.



What's your sentence, Judge GON Member?



UPDATE:

I dusted off the old case file to refresh my memory. I need to update OP after making this post-

BAC was .26

Defendant wasn't actually picked up at home, defendant never made it home. Cops caught up to defendant first.

Three motorcyclists were at a red light. When it turned green, one of them [the inexperienced one] accidentally popped a wheelie, lost control, fell into oncoming traffic. The second motorcyclist approached to help and also got clipped by the defendant, suffering injuries. So the defendant actually hit two people, killing 1. This is based on written statement from motorcyclist #3.


UPDATE #2-

Defendant was underage at the time of the accident, overage at time of sentencing.






FINAL CONCLUSION-


Mallory Hood was sentenced to two terms of 18 years and 15 years to serve concurrently, with no parole. So she will be in jail for 18 years. For context, in this same jurisdiction, six months later, another lady killed two people while drunk driving, and had two prior DUI's, and only got 8 years with 5 to serve.

 

[Scott Rogers]

I have zero tolerance for anyone DUI. I would give them the max statue allows.

 

[Fletch_W]

Pretend there's no statute. You are the judge. What's your sentence?

 

[Lilly001]

DUI 1st conviction with no priors I would go 6 month probation, 1 year license suspension, 200 hrs comunity Service.
The leaving the scene would be trickier, I would go a year minus a day in jail.
The vehicular manslaughter would be unprovable if the coroner couldn’t link the suspects action as the definitive cause of death.

 

[Railroader]

Agree with Lilly...

 

[basstrkr]

Question- did defendant know that he had hit someone/something at the time of incident? Did he know he was leaving an accident site?

 

[mark-7mag]

Too much reading for me tonight Bruh

 

[Fletch_W]

Question- did defendant know that he had hit someone/something at the time of incident? Did he know he was leaving an accident site?

Inconclusive. No lo contendre but common sense says they knew.

 

[basstrkr]

Hang'em!

 

[Ray357]

No jury, the defendant pleads no contest. No trial.

The defendant has zero prior arrests.

The following facts are neither disputed by the state nor the defense. These are the facts as both sides agrees.

1: The defendant was driving and SUV under the influence of alcohol at night, on the way home from a bar, on a 4-lane divided highway.

2: The victim fell off a motorcycle and rolled into oncoming traffic. The initial motorcycle accident was in no way a result of the defendant's actions.

3: The defendant rolled over the victim, unable to stop in time.

4: The victim is deceased, but it is inconclusive whether the victim died from the initial accident or from being ran over as a secondary consequence of falling off his/her motorcycle.

5: The defendant never crossed the center line. The victim's body rolled/bounced into the defendant's lane of traffic.

6: The defendant never stopped, the defendant never called the police.

7: The defendant is charged with, and pleads no contest to, DUI, hit and run, vehicular manslaughter.



What's your sentence, Judge GON Member?

First off, you don't know that him being drunk was not a factor. Delayed reaction time could be why he ran over motorcycle dude. 364 days to serve for leaving scene. 5 years consecutive for vehicular homicide. Probation 12 months DUI.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

First off, you don't know that him being drunk was not a factor. Delayed reaction time could be why he ran over motorcycle dude. 364 days to serve for leaving scene. 5 years consecutive for vehicular homicide. Probation 12 months DUI.

you can't prove that the DUI had anything to do with him running over the victim, and you don't know that the victim was alive when he was hit.

 

[Fletch_W]

Update- I originally said 4-lane divided highway, it is not a divided highway. Just a stripe, but was 4 lanes and is a US Highway.

 

[Da Possum]

I don't get it

 

[basstrkr]

Defendant could not know that stopping and rendering help would not have saved a life. He deserves the max allowable.

 

[zedex]

I'll judge this one, but first, a little background info:

I ride motorcycles. My little brother rode motorcycles. My little brother was killed by a drunk driver. In the 33 years between my brother's untimely death and the death of my mother, I saw how his death tortured her and it gave proof that time does not heal. This info gives clarity on my ruling.

Facts established, I cannot punish someone for vehicular manslaughter due to the initiating chain of events being beyond the control of the defendant.

Was the deceased stunt riding? Did he fail to maintain proper riding position, causing him to fall? Did he hit a patch of ice, sand covered road or other obstacles that caused the fall? Was the deceased, in fact, DUI as well? We dont know any of this.
What is known is the deceased initiated the crash.

As for the DUI, I sentence the defendant to the maximum allowable prison term without the possibility of parole.

To the charge of "hit and run", I sentence the defendant to the maximum sentence allowed without the possibility of parole.

Furthermore, I order the sentences to run consecutively. Beyond those sentences, I prescribe 100 hours of community service for each charge in alcohol awareness facilities, two years probation for each charge (to run consecutively), order attendance of alcohol counseling classes of 10 hours per week for one year, attend driving classes for 10 hours per week for one year and order that everything be completed (except probation) within one year of release from prison. And driving privileges are revoked for 5 years commencing at the end of the probation period. And license is revoked during probation as well

However, it does not end here. If the family of the deceased should decide to bring a civil suit, I encourage it.

 

[Ray357]

you can't prove that the DUI had anything to do with him running over the victim, and you don't know that the victim was alive when he was hit.

He plead guilty. I don't have to prove anything.

 

[BeerThirty]

200 service hours and drop the rest of the charges

 

[Browning Slayer]

Inconclusive. No lo contendre but common sense says they knew.

If "common sense" was a defense or a charging "offense" how many LEO's would be in jail?

For life!

 

[BeerThirty]

it sickens me to know that there are so many people that look through the facts and would crucify someone because they were in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and may have had one whole beer in their system.

 

[Fletch_W]

I'll judge this one, but first, a little background info:

I ride motorcycles. My little brother rode motorcycles. My little brother was killed by a drunk driver. In the 33 years between my brother's untimely death and the death of my mother, I saw how his death tortured her and it gave proof that time does not heal. This info gives clarity on my ruling.

Facts established, I cannot punish someone for vehicular manslaughter due to the initiating chain of events being beyond the control of the defendant.

Was the deceased stunt riding? Did he fail to maintain proper riding position, causing him to fall? Did he hit a patch of ice, sand covered road or other obstacles that caused the fall? Was the deceased, in fact, DUI as well? We dont know any of this.
What is known is the deceased initiated the crash.

As for the DUI, I sentence the defendant to the maximum allowable prison term without the possibility of parole.

To the charge of "hit and run", I sentence the defendant to the maximum sentence allowed without the possibility of parole.

Furthermore, I order the sentences to run consecutively. Beyond those sentences, I prescribe 100 hours of community service for each charge in alcohol awareness facilities, two years probation for each charge (to run consecutively), order attendance of alcohol counseling classes of 10 hours per week for one year, attend driving classes for 10 hours per week for one year and order that everything be completed (except probation) within one year of release from prison. And driving privileges are revoked for 5 years commencing at the end of the probation period. And license is revoked during probation as well

However, it does not end here. If the family of the deceased should decide to bring a civil suit, I encourage it.

Pretend there's no minimum or maximum sentence in statute for any of the crimes. You are the judge, with sole discretion.

Lay it out.