I don’t know how to do this justice. Please watch this brief report from CNN where Ethan Couch successfully is defended from 4 counts of vehicular manslaughter by explaining to a judge that he’s a poor little rich kid with bad parents.
Included in the Ethan Couch’s defense is what can only be described as evidence of sexual assault. His parents caught him in the pickup truck at 15 with a naked and passed out 14 year old girl. The defense uses this as an example of permissive parenting. Where was the prosecution? Why are we busy trying to further coddle this teen?
Four dead people including one man’s wife and daughter. It’s not enough to kill one member of his immediate family Ethan Couch had to take two?
Worth noting: Juvenile and adult prisons are full with poor kids whose parents never guided them. Which disease shall we invent for them? Who is the judge and how does he know Ethan’s parents? That’s what I want to know.
I don’t even know what to say to this. Is the same judge going to try the parents for homicide by irresponsible parenting?
I keep typing and deleting, because I just don’t have words or a framework to even discuss what a colossal miscarriage of justice this is. And I’m a rich person – if my kids are ever diagnosed with “affluenza,” I’m going to be suicidal.
*sigh*
We all know that the justice system has always favored the wealthy, right?
My first reaction was disgust at yet another “it’s not my fault! It’s my parents!” defense. Lyle & Erik Menendez typified this type of defense the first time they weren’t convicted for killing their own parents on this premise.
But reading more on this after seeing what you wrote? I found this quote here (http://is.gd/lHT7ey):
“The judge decided the programs available in the Texas juvenile justice system may not provide the intensive therapy the teen could receive at a $450,000-a-year rehabilitation center near Newport Beach, Calif., that the parents would pay for.
Scott Brown, the boy’s lead defense attorney, said he could have been freed after two years if he had drawn the 20-year sentence. Instead, the judge “fashioned a sentence that could have him under the thumb of the justice system for the next 10 years,” he told the Star-Telegram.”
It’s kind of like how people think that “not-guilty by reason of insanity” gets people off of a murder charge… it’s a misconception. John Hinkley Jr. is still confined at St. Elizabeth’s hospital where he has been since 1981. If he had been convicted of attempted (not successful) murder in the assassination attempt? He would’ve been released from prison by now.
Doing more research on this, I have to say that I’m actually relieved to hear that it wasn’t as cut-and-dried as it sounded above. Because honestly? He could’ve been out in 2 YEARS if sentenced to jail instead.
What I wish is that we could also afford the $450k treatment center for the inner-city, minority, gang member child in the same situation instead of just throwing them into the “learn how to be a criminal” prison system we have right now. :(
At this point, I’m more annoyed by the use of a stupid, made-up word “affluenza” to describe the phenomenon.
The judge in this case gave a black teen 10 years for punching a man who died. This is outrageous! Hoping the judge gets kicked of the bench.