First, from news reports yesterday (various sources):
A young man accused of driving a BMW at speeds up to 100 mph before slamming into a pickup truck, killing a newspaper carrier on her pre-dawn rounds, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a vehicular manslaughter charge.
"He’s charged with vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence,” Deputy District Attorney Terrie Roberts said. “He faces up to six years in prison if he is found guilty."
Superior Court Judge Laura Halgren, who allowed Dallo to remain free on $50,000 bail, scheduled a readiness conference for Aug. 11 and a preliminary hearing for Sept. 12.
Prosecutors say alcohol or drugs were not involved in the crash.
This is exactly what I feared would happen. An innocent woman is killed by the willfully reckless actions of Jonny Dallo, and the maximum punishment is six years. From what I could find on the Internet (with conflicting reports), the average sentence for vehicular manslaughter is between 6 and 30 months — with about 25% receiving no jail time at all.
One lawyer’s site defines vehicular manslaughter as “… an unintentional killing that occurred during the commission of an unlawful act while driving a motor vehicle.” I’m certainly no lawyer, but in my reading of that definition I think I see the crux of my issue — it lies with the word “unintentional", which seems to be the key difference between involuntary manslaughter (which includes vehicular manslaugther) and the more stiffly punished “voluntary manslaughter,” or murder. It sounds to me like our laws have codified the liberal notion that we are only fully responsible for the consequences of our actions when we intended the consequences.
An anonymous commenter on one of my prior posts about Jonny Dallo (here and here) touched on another cherished liberal notion:
it is certain tht jonny dallo killed sum1 but it is also certain tht she wasnt wearing a seat belt either so she wasnt being safe
Blame the victim — a favorite liberal shibboleth, a way to shift part of the responsibility elsewhere. Oh, how I hate this kind of illogical thinking, and what it has done to our society!
Just in case anyone is in doubt, here’s where I stand: 100% of the responsibility for Jodi’s death is Jonny Dallo’s, for making the choice to behave in a reckless fashion that endangered everyone on that road — and which killed Jodi Burnett. I believe that Jonny — and others who demonstrate similarly reckless behavior — should be held accountable for the consequences of their actions, and their punishment should be widely published as a deterrent. I believe that unintentionally causing someone’s death as a result of reckless behavior isn’t far removed (in a moral sense) from intentionally causing someone’s death, and the punishments should be correspondingly similar.
Jonny Dallo should be in jail for a long, long time — and if he ever makes it out, he should never be allowed to drive again. His jail time should be unpleasant: punishment, not “rehabilitation”. I would just love to see a documentary produced about what he did, the consequences to Jodi and her family, and the unpleasant punishment that was his reward — and then require all school kids to watch it.
