Vehicular Manslaughter

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

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.?

[Zephyrus]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

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.

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.

[CutiePie2000]

Originally Posted by Zephyrus

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.

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

[knight_shadow]

^^^ LOL

[DaemonSeid]

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?

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

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

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.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

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.

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

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Even I know the difference (from a laywoman's perspective), and I'm bougie as hell.

I had to lol at the use of this word.

And your defintion of jail vs. prison is correct (as far as I know- my stepdad works in corrections administration).

[Zephyrus]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

Did YOU read your post?

Dumb ass.

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.

Originally Posted by starang21

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

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

Originally Posted by Kevin

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.

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.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by Zephyrus

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.

Keyboard courage at its finest.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by Zephyrus

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

Fixed

[starang21]

Originally Posted by Zephyrus

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

and just because you say you're not an idiot doesn't mean your peers agree with you. and it doesn't mean your lawyer can prove you're not one.

[starang21]

Originally Posted by Zephyrus

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.

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

[Kevin]

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.

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

These kids went to the same high school I graduated from

http://www.freep.com/article/2009031...0317005/?imw=Y

I thought of you when I heard about this. They interviewed the daughter the other day and she was standing in the door to her house with some too-small tank top with her belly showing and baggy sweats. Then they interviewed her yesterday leaving the hospital her mom is at and she was wearing a green tshirt and St Patricks Day beads. Wow. You're mom just KILLED 4 innocent teenagers and you're out celebrating a drinking holiday. Classy.