Justice?
It's not clear to me that any good will come from incarcerating this woman for 18 years.
If anything, it's likely to encourage others to and run after an unintentional (though clearly negligent) hit.
In the heat of the moment (especially when drunk), who is going to calculate that they're better off turning themselves in, paying huge fines, losing their license, and probably getting some jail time, than if they try to run to get off scott free? Remember, we're talking about people who buy Lottery tickets.
There are thousands of people driving drunk out there right now. This woman did nothing worse than the rest of them, except get unlucky by crossing the center line at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The criminal penalty should be the same for the crime (drinking and driving) regardless of whether in that particular instance it happened to lead to a tragedy.
If it's justice to put this unlucky bastard drunk driver away for 18 years, then all the lucky bastard drunk drivers who happen not to hit and kill anyone should get 18 years too.
Penalizing someone for being less lucky than the others is not justice.
Last edited by Helmet Head; 05-26-06 at 02:39 PM.