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Comment by city41 | Hacker News Reader

He was charged with Vehicular Homicide[0], which is a felony. I'm curious how many years of jail he gets. Wikipedia states that in Georgia it's 3-15 years of prison, and in Louisiana it's 2-20 years. I agree it'd be nice if this was more consistent state to state though.

[0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicular_homicide#Washington

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the real case right now in GA:

- the DUI guy killed 4 year boy - 6months

- the mom of the boy who were walking across the road with her 3 children - 3 years

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/mom-convicted-son-jaywal...

Goodness this is horrible.

That man, Jerry Guy, admitted he had been drinking and taking prescribed painkillers the night of the accident, and had been convicted in two earlier hit-and-runs. He served six months in jail for the crime.

Additionally, as someone noted in the linked story, the bus stop was nearly a mile away from the crosswalk.

They ask people to use public transportation, but make it as inconvenient as possible to do so.

0.3 miles is not even close to a mile.

Have you ever tried to walk a quarter-mile with a four year-old?

Wow, that's just mind-blowingly wrong.

She hasn't been sentenced yet so hopefully the judge will go easy on her.

the fact that she was convicted at all defies logic - how would her and her children being on crosswalk have stopped the drunk driver which had 2 previous hit-and-runs ? (until of course it is a crosswalk above or below the road - not likely seeing the photographs of the road and the neighborhood). Even then, lets suppose instead of the drunk driver there were a gang shooting (or just a drunk shooting cans) and the stray bullet - would she still be convicted of the jaywalking? Dissolution/de-emphasizing of the importance of "mens rea" while increasing the punishment for just being at the wrong place at the wrong time is very worrisome tendency.

No, it makes perfect sense. She's black, and she faced an all-white jury. This is in suburban Atlanta.

This is where "jury of your peers" can be pretty useful. Apparently none of the jurors had ever ridden in a bus before.

I really also want to put the city planner up for trial, because the reason she jay walked was that the nearest legal crosswalk was half a mile away from the bus stop. In suburban Atlanta, however, I've never seen any evidence that city planners even exist.

> Nelson also said that the jury had "never been in my shoes," because each of them answered that they had never taken public transportation before.

That's a "jury of your peers" alright.

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