Some people need more jail time
I’m really getting tired of seeing people commit crimes that deserve lengthy jail time and instead, they get smacked on the wrist and let loose, more likely than not, to re-offend again.
Take the Nick Harrell case. At the age of 17, in 2003, he drank which is illegal at his age and he drove after drinking, which is also illegal.
If these two illegal acts weren’t bad enough, he loaded his truck up with five passengers and proceeded to commit another illegal act of driving 90 mph. He completely ignored the fact that all the lives in his truck were his responsibility.
Sadly enough, he didn’t stop his illegal behavior until a tree did it for him. At that point we add one more illegal act to the list and that was the death of 16-year-old Shannon Green.
He was later charged with vehicular homicide, reckless aggravated assault and consumption of alcohol under the age of 21.
All these illegal acts were called ‘a terrible mistake’ by Harrell himself when he was asking the judge to allow him pre-trial diversion back in 2005.
Did I miss something? These weren’t mistakes. Mistakes are something that happens by accident. A mistake is when I left the water to the water hose on after washing the car and didn’t remember it for 15 minutes. I’ll pay for my mistake with a larger water bill.
His wasn’t a mistake. He drank on purpose. He loaded up his car with passengers on purpose. He drove after drinking on purpose. He drove 90 mph on purpose. The only thing he didn’t do on purpose was wreck.
Harrell pled guilty recently to six of the seven charges against him. So what does he get thanks to a really sweet plea agreement? He gets 180 days in jail and six years on probation.
What happened to the fairness in justice? He will probably be out in five months and he didn’t even lose his license. His plea agreement was extremely off balance with his actions on that day.
For the safety of others, he should have at least lost his license in the plea agreement. If not allowed to drive at the time, that girl would still be alive. I believe taking his license away during the duration of his probation would have been appropriate.
I believe people shouldn’t be punished forever, but I do believe in making the roads safe from someone who, at age 17, proved he isn’t responsible behind the wheel.
The only people I feel sorry for is the family of the victim. They will have a lifetime of sorrow missing her every day, including special occasions like birthdays, holidays and family get-togethers.
The parents won’t get to see their daughter grow up, graduate high school or college, get married or have children. To them, my heart goes out. It is a sad world when parents out live their children because of the reckless actions of someone.
Toward the prosecutor’s office that allows unjust plea agreements, I feel nothing good. I don’t care if it was the parent’s wishes or an effort to avoid a lengthy trial, crimes such as the one committed by Harrell shouldn’t get a plea agreement. He committed numerous illegal acts and the end result was the loss of a life. No being sorry or feeling regret could ever take that back.
Taking all the actions of Harrell into account, there should have been no plea agreement and a jury should have decided his fate. If a jury wanted to go lightly on him, then I would have accepted that the same way I accepted the decision made by the sympathetic jury in the Mary Winkler case.
Lisa Hobbs is a reporter for the Standard. She can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].