Mom spared jail time after driver hits, kills boy

[alp227]

Source: CNN

Marietta, Georgia (CNN) -- A Georgia woman who potentially faced more jail time than the driver who struck and killed her son last year was spared any time behind bars Wednesday.

Raquel Nelson of Marietta was sentenced to 12 months of probation and 40 hours of community service by Judge Kathryn Tanksley. Half of those hours must relate to child safety.

Nelson has already faced the ultimate nightmare for a mother -- seeing her child die after being struck by a car in 2010. She initially faced up to 36 months in jail in connection with the incident -- a sentence six times longer than the time served by the driver of the car that hit her son.

The case had become a cause for radio talk show hosts, the NAACP and even transportation advocates, who said Nelson is being punished because she chose to cross the road at the bus stop across from her apartment instead of traveling to the nearest crosswalk, three-tenths of a mile away.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/07/26/georgia.mother.sentencing/index.html

[TDale313]

1. Sad case.

Glad to hear that this was the outcome, although certainly no happy endings for anyone involved. The idea that this mother, who had already lost so much, was facing a jail sentence so much longer than the actual driver just felt so wrong.

[emcguffie]

2. I hate to say this, but...

I suspected this woman was black before I read any more than that it was in Georgia and there wasn't a crosswalk by her apartment building. I don't think they would ever have charged her if she had been white and middle class. Nowadays, I think both color and class can put you at risk for this kind of treatment.

To walk from her apartment to the bus stop via the crosswalk would have been more than half a mile!

I am a middle-aged white woman, originally from Memphis, Tennessee. I live in NJ now. I lived in the south during the civil rights days. And I don't mean to say that I think the south is really all that much more racist than the north. Racism in the south, at least when I lived there, was blatant, in your face. Racism in the north is there, but it is covered up, hidden. At least, that's my opinion.

[theHandpuppet]

4. Punished for her race and class

A single Mom of three small children who had to travel via public transportation which, of course, didn't have a stop within half a mile of her home. I was disheartened to see a number of folks here on DU condemning the Mother -- how many of us have had to walk three small kids a half mile to home, that after a long bus ride? I haven't walked a mile in her well-worn shoes and this is a tragedy all the way around. If those who so readily condemn her really gave a crap they would buy this woman a serviceable used car so she and her kids wouldn't have to walk everywhere.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

7. The city planners should be the ones on the hook for not installing..

.. a cross-walk at a bus stop across from an apartment complex.

[IrishBuckeye]

14. You want crosswalks put in at every bus stop/apt complex??

That would do wonders for traffic flow. /Sarc

[Hassin Bin Sober]

16. Go look at a map of the accident site. It was posted on DU.

Then flap your gums.

[emcguffie]

8. Why is this so common now?

I guess maybe it's that pendulum thing, but it seems to really be overdoing it.

Every day it seems to be more acceptable to protect the rich and the right color and to blame and punish the victims. There was a period of time when people became conscious of how wrong that was. But now it's more and more acceptable.

It also seems to me that there is some confusion in the middle of all this political divide. I'm definitely a leftie, lifelong liberal, used to be called the commie in high school in Memphis. Nowadays, I find myself agreeing about SOME things with people far away on the right. This would be mostly libertarian type stuff, like individual liberties, but not to the point of Ayn Rand. Just basic liberties. Oh, and the Federal Reserve. I used to think they were nuts about the Federal Reserve, but it turns out they're right. So the controllers keep us confused and looking the wrong way all the time. And now they are taking every last penny they can get away from everyone else, and blaming them at the same time. Sick.

[Cracklin Charlie]

12. There is an old saying......

There but for the grace of God go I.

People forget that what happens to others could so easily happen to them. They should at least try not to condemn so quickly.

[stockholmer]

3. the very fact she was even tried on these charges speaks volumes to the tyranny that is running

rampant in The US. Be it cases like this, or prosecuting people for growing vegetables http://oakparkhatesveggies.wordpress.com/ , towns outlawing and/or requiring pre-approval to form groups and clubs http://wonkette.com/449706/arkansas-city-council-outlaws-public-meetings-other-councils , SWAT-teaming Amish farmers and hemp products manufacturers, etc etc etc, the nanny-police state is a vibrant beast.


:thumbsdown:

[emcguffie]

6. It's more than nanny, isn't it?

Seems like it's almost totalitarian.

But then I do believe in some conspiracies, which means I'm just crazy and stupid.

[Downtown Hound]

5. A bullshit ruling

By which I mean, she didn't even deserve the probation and community service. She deserved an apology, and some money for the added grief, stress, and time lost.

[Jefferson23]

9. Fuck them, this woman should NOT be required to do anything but grieve her son.

I hope there is an attorney out there who will lead her case to sue the bastard who killed her son.

His background is riddled with reckless behavior.

[BeliQueen]

10. Jury Bias

There were apparently no public-transit dependent people on that jury.

I would have pushed for acquittal until everyone agreed.

[Broderick]

11. I am happy for her other kids

This is quite the sad story. How she could face more time than the driver of the car is beyond me. One huge mistake, she will have to live with for the rest of her life. So sad all the way around.

[valerief]

13. That poor woman. I guess the killer driver was white. nt

[theHandpuppet]

15. From what I understand...

... the driver had been drinking and also fled the scene. Yet he only got three months.