Vehicular Manslaughter
 

I didn't know where to post this. chit chat's good though. Here's my question. I have a friend who's in law school and she and I were talking about vehicular manslaughter. She told me that if I hit someone by accident in my car I go to prison. I told her she was full of sht. There's no way in hell if I hit someone by accident that I'm going to prison. I'm posting it here because I know there are other law students on here, and this has got to be a joke right?

I could see if I hit some dude that was doing work on the side of the road, but anywhere else, especially in bad weather? wtf??? No way.

From law.com's dictionary:

vehicular manslaughter

n. the crime of causing the death of a human being due to illegal driving of an automobile, including gross negligence, drunk driving, reckless driving or speeding. Vehicular manslaughter can be charged as a misdemeanor (minor crime with a maximum punishment of a year in county jail or only a fine) or a felony (punishable by a term in state prison) depending on the circumstances. Gross negligence or driving a few miles over the speed limit might be charged as a misdemeanor, but drunk driving resulting in a fatality is most likely treated as a felony. Death of a passenger, including a loved one or friend, can be vehicular manslaughter if due to illegal driving.

Ummm... yes, you can go to prison if you're driving in a negligent manner and hit someone. No one has the right to take someone else's life. If you're driving in negligent manner and hit someone - why SHOULDN'T you be held accountable?

You'd also likely be singing a different tune if a loved one was the victim.

from what i remember, if weather is THE ONLY factor (not speeding in bad weather, etc) then you will probably be ok...but it wont even get to court if the cop doesnt see the need to write a ticket to you or press charges. the other party can sue if they like, but it would be hard to prove you were negligent without that officer to back you up...that part is coming from experience!

Exactly - depending on the penal code in the particular state, and the circumstances, you can definitely see jail time. Just because you weren't gunning for someone doesn't mean that you're not subject to criminal liability.

Coincidentally:


Donte Stallworth hits and kills pedestrian

Great minds think alike, or something like that; I was just going to post about the Stallworth story.

I wonder if Zephyrus is Stallworth.

Its a real thing. I know someone who was convicted for it because of killing someone in an accident when he was drunk. He is still serving a 5 year sentence.

HHHHHHmmmmmmmmm....

There are a couple of ways to test it; have him run a route, then toss him a couple of passes. If he runs the wrong route, or drops the passes, he's probably Stallworth.

I'm joking about this, but if it turns out Stallworth was drunk, all objectivity and mocking on my part goes out the window; as I've noted on the site, I have personal reasons why I have trouble being unbiased about drunk drivers.

what if he is T.O.?

Then he'll still drop passes; TO had a terrible catch rate the past couple of years.

ETA: Although, it's fairly interesting; TO has never had issues with the law, and yet he gets a ton of flack. If you read enough about big-time wide receivers (including Jerry Rice, who benefits from a halo complex), you see that they all had TO-type issues. They just didn't publicize them.

You keep mentioning "if I hit someone, if I hit someone". The person would have to die for "manslaughter" to come into the equation.

This story was in the news last year, but the driver was intentionally trying to run a group of people down, and succeeded in killing one person. Pretty terrible.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/fraser_va.../37584889.html

Well, duh. Why shouldn't I? If it was an accident as in a kid jumped out right in front of the car and I slid on water or ice and killed him. That's what I mean, and NO I SHOULDN'T.

She's a first year law student, so she could be clueless. She told me that I would go to prison NOT jail if I killed someone after I hit him/her, no matter what. There's no fking way, I'm going to believe that, and if it is true, it's bullsht.

Thanks dude. I'm reading that story.

Duh, no sht!

No offense but you and that kddani person just don't get it. Obviously when I say hit, I mean kill..dead.

If the dude was drunk, then I'm all for seeing him go under, but if he wasn't and it was an accident, why should he go to prison. I'm talking prison here folks. Not jail. Jail and prison are totally different.

Did you read any of the posts? Negligence is mentioned several times. If someone jumped out in front of you in bad weather, you're not being negligent.

Hit and kill are not the same thing.

Um, can you read?

Btw, I'm a practicing lawyer admitted to practice in three states. I think I have a decent handle on this very basic tenant of law.

knight_shadow, I think that the word "negligence" is too big of a word for the OP.

^^^ LOL

The thing is, I'm not sure if Zephyrus really wants answers on these topics, as much as he wants to vent about the legal system. He posted about other legal issues in another thread, and Kevin and I (both upper-class law students) tried to discuss some of the reasons behind the laws in question. It seems like he's just displeased by the legal system as a whole.

I do feel sorry for his law school friend though, haha.

When I was 13, one of my friends was hit by a car. It was a clear day, sunny, with no rain, fog, or haze. She was killed instantly, and her friend was critically injured and in physical therapy for a long time.

The driver wasn't charged because the girls ran out in the road and didn't use the crosswalks. Ironically, a few weeks after that accident, she hit another teenage girl who ran out in front of her car. I think she left town soon after that.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Exactly...I don't want to get into the past history of the guy who hit my wife and I when he was drunk driving.

No kidding dipsht. I know hit and kill aren't the same thing. I said if I "hit and kill". Did you read my post? In my OP, I was referring to what my friend told me. She said that it doesn't matter, and I was trying to see if those were facts she was telling me.


I wouldn't give a sht if you were a practicing lawyer in 50 states and two third world countries, my question was would I go to prison (not jail) if it was an accident, as in a kid jumping right out in front of me. No, I'm not drinking and yes I'm driving responsibly, but without witnesses though.

It's obvious I can read, otherwise I wouldn't be responding to your fking post.
I was just trying to see where she was coming from with that. When she told me that it doesn't matter if I'm driving responsibly, if there are no witnesses, I'm screwed, I called bullsht on that whole thing. No I don't agree with everything about our legal system. Like I mentioned before, it's all based on money, not what's right and wrong. So she was wrong right? I just want her to see this that's all.

btw: if you never told me that you were a law student I would have thought you were already out practicing law. Based on your previous posts from you and Kevin, you guys seem to know what your talking about.

Did YOU read your post?

Dumb ass.

Here what I can offer.

There is no definitive way to really answer your OP.

Why? Because there are so many factors that has to be accounted for when this occurs.

Some would be:

- time of day

- road conditions

- laws of that jurisdiction

- where the pedestrian was in relation to the driver hitting them.

- condition (and age) of the driver

- driving history

- condition of the pedestrian

- actions of the driver AFTER the accident (driving off vs staying at the scene)

and I know that there are a few others that i haven't mentioned suffice to say that no 2 situations are alike and no 2 people may get the same treatment when this happens.

The best you could probably do is find out what the laws are in your local area.


























































...so tell us the truth...what's Randy Moss really like??


And tell me something...how is jail and prison different?

You lost me on that one. Prior experience?

Even I know the difference (from a laywoman's perspective), and I'm bougie as hell. I expect the GC legal eagles to swoop in and correct me if I'm wrong:

Jail is like, oh hai I got arrested for a minor offense, and this is where they're keeping me. If I'm not mistaken, Rikers Island is a "jail" in that it's only a short-term holding facility--people with less than a year go to Rikers, as well as people who can't make bail and who haven't been convicted.

Prison is where you're actually convicted, sentenced, and that's where you go.

depends on your lawyer. but you could. it's happened to people before.

Whether its' a crime depends on the defendant's mental state when he did what he did. (I say that word meaning perpetrator, 'alleged perpetrator,' suspect, person who did the bad thing, or as my crim law prof would have said it "Clem" [because it was always Clem in our class hypos].)

When I say mental state, I also say that for lack of a better word, but here, mental state means one of 4 things, all of which have real legal meanings: [cut paste from wiki because I couldn't do a better job]

• Purposefully - the actor has the "conscious object" of engaging in conduct and believes and hopes that the attendant circumstances exist.

• Knowingly - the actor is certain that his conduct will lead to the result.

• Recklessly - the actor is aware that the attendant circumstances exist, but nevertheless engages in the conduct that a "law-abiding person" would have refrained from.

• Negligently - the actor is unaware of the attendant circumstances and the consequences of his conduct, but a "reasonable person" would have been aware

• Strict liability - the actor engaged in conduct and his mental state is irrelevant

All of those mental states will, with the right [or wrong] acts and set of facts get you put in the pokey.

As for negligent homicide, which is the crime you might be talking about if the actor is negligent, meaning the actor is unaware of the attendant circumstances and the consequences of his conduct, but a "reasonable person" would have been aware, then if that conduct results in the death of another person, yes, that's going to be a crime.

Now, will it result in jail time? Prison? A suspended sentence? That depends on the prosecutor, the judge, the defense lawyer and in rare cases, the jury. Most likely, those folks are going to be looking at how negligent you were, what the state laws say about negligent homicide, or whether you were even negligent in killing someone. Probably, a case where you killed someone while going 55 in a 45 will not be as bad as killing someone by driving an 18-wheeler while on PCP.

ETA: The conclusion should be painfully obvious as to what happens in the areas above negligence, i.e., knowingly, intentionally, recklessly; so I didn't discuss 'em.

Here are two hypos so you can see the difference:

1) Clem is driving, a person runs out into the street right in front of him. Clem had no way to see them coming, they shot out from between two parked cars. Though Clem is obeying all of the traffic laws and being otherwise reasonably prudent, he still runs the person over and they die. Result? Probably no crime.

2) Clem, again, is driving. He's merging into traffic on the interstate. He fails to obey a yield sign. By doing so, he causes a wreck which results in the death of another person. Result? Negligent homicide -- because failure to obey the yield sign amounts to negligence.

This all depends on state law of course. Also, it should be noted that I'm defining terms, not giving legal advice.

Thank you...either way it's not where I want to be.

Wah wah wah...maybe a nursery rhyme will stop the crying. Little miss muffet sat on a tuffet eating her curds and fking way. Along came a spider who sat down beside her and scared miss muffet away. Burp! Better now?

Hey sht for brains. Yeah, I read my post. The last time I checked I was the one who typed it, dip sht.

Now shut up and stop crying over spilled milk. Fktard.

Yeah, I could see going if I was driving like an idiot.

I'll probably see my friend this week. I'll show her this post because this sounds more realistic. I'm all for this, but to place an innocent man or woman behind bars for hitting and killing someone is stupid. She told me it doesn't matter.

... you can say fuck on greekchat.

Now stop being an asshole.

Keyboard courage at its finest.

look who's talking

Couldn't be me. I'm too busy crying over spilled milk.

Yeah, you're right.

Are you a moderator? Didn't think so.

I got warned for using the word fuck and spelling it out. some sht about my post count not being big enough.

Fixed