Whose Justice?
This is the final (for a while, anyway) in a series of posts on how the criminal law system ought to work.
Here’s our situation:
Meg, Beth, and Amy are all 22-year-old seniors in college; all live off campus, and all are five miles away from the Drunken Collegian bar, Meg to the East, Beth to the West, and Amy to the South. Each drives to the bar to meet and drink. None has any criminal record or traffic tickets.
Each enjoys cheery conversation and frilly rum drinks until closing time, when each take their respective cars to try to drive home. All have reached a blood alcohol level of 0.22%, which is techincally referred to as “blitzed.”
Meg drives home on the relatively vacant street toward her house. About a mile down, she sees a car stopped at a stop sign too late, and veers hard right to avoid it; she has no idea where she’s heading before she slams the wheel right. She ends up (appropriately) with her car through a the store window of Ubiquitous Liquors. The police come and arrest her.
Beth and Amy both drive separately to their respective homes on their respectively relatively vacant streets. Each sees a car stopped at a stop sign too late; each veers hard right onto the sidewalk, and each strikes and kills a 25-year-old woman before stopping just short of an entry to a Ubiquitious Liquors.
Beth’s victim is a married homeless advocate with two children, whose family wants nothing bad to happen to Beth. “One life has been destroyed, and we are confident that Beth can live an upright, upstanding life and has learned her lesson. Further harm to society is unnecessary, and we do not want her to serve any time. We believe 120 hours of community service would be the right thing.”
Amy’s victim is a single insurance adjuster. Amy’s victim’s parents want Amy prosecuted for murder (a highly unrealistic outcome.) Amy’s victim’s family want Amy incarcerated for as long as possible; they want her in for as long as their daughter is dead. “My daughter deserves to be alive. This woman had no mercy when she got in the car, and she deserves nothing but eons of prison.”
Questions:
1. Assume that the fact that a person was or wasn’t there in these scenarios is entirely luck. Should the friends be treated differently due to the different result? Why, or why not?
2. Should Amy and Beth be treated identically? Why, or why not?
If you’d like to discuss specific sentences, each faces a hefty fine. Meg’s exposure is two days to 120 days actual time, though she will likely be eligible for an alternate work program or other non-jail jail. Beth and Amy face up to five years actual time in prison. As with the others, feel free to ignore the actual California law to discuss whatever sentence you think is just.
Thanks for participating everyone! If there are any other criminal law subjects you’d like hit, let me know in the comments.
–JRM