What’s wrong with this picture? If Richard Devon were arrested with five grams of crack cocaine in his possession, his mandatory minimum sentence would have been four years.
But after hitting and killing three teenagers with his truck, then fleeing the scene, his “maximum sentence allowed by law” is three years. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years (Page 1, Jan. 6), and could serve less. (For possession of 50 grams of crack, he’d have gotten 10 years to life.)
The crack-possession penalties are federally imposed, while the vehicular manslaughter maximum is under state jurisdiction. Still, where’s the sense of proportion? Where’s the justice?
Worse, with arcane reasoning, the Illinois Supreme Court recently ruled that drivers needn’t stop after such an accident unless they “know” they hit a person. Newspaper accounts did not explain how this is squared with state laws prohibiting “hit and run” or “leaving the scene of an accident.”
It appears our state courts have given a copout card to every scoundrel or deadbeat, drunk or sober, who cripples or kills while behind the wheel. Without a passenger willing to testify to refute a driver’s “I didn’t know” alibi, the chances that just punishment shall be rendered are slim to none.
Given such light punishment, have Richard Devon, and others who follow in his footsteps, “paid their debt to society,” or simply have they given society–and the parents of the dead teens–an IOU?
