Mother whose son was killed in hit-and-run faces two years in jail for jaywalking

Mother whose son was killed in hit-and-run faces two years in jail for jaywalking

Marietta mother Raquel Nelson--who lost her 4-year-old son when a car ran into him as she was headed home from the bus stop with her three children--may face up to two and half years in prison for jaywalking.

The Huffington Post's Radley Balko points out that Nelson may serve six times as many months in prison as the man who ran over her family and drove off.

That man, Jerry Guy, admitted he had been drinking and taking prescribed painkillers the night of the accident, and had been convicted in two earlier hit-and-runs. He served six months in jail for the crime.

A month after her son's death, and three days after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a story called "Jaywalkers Take Deadly Risks," the Georgia Solicitor General's officer charged Nelson with homicide by vehicle and reckless conduct. She was convicted by a jury and will face sentencing next week, the AP reported. In an earlier jaywalking case, another mother was charged with involuntary manslaughter while the driver who hit her daughter was not charged.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/mother-whose-son-killed-hit-run-faces-two-201219312.html

break up the family because he's a douche bag.

Sad news, but old news.

oh my gawd.
the man was drunk, on pills, and got SIX months?! and the bereaved mother, the mother who lost her child, could go to prison?!
this is beyond sick.

full disclosure: my daughter was killed by a hit and run driver who was charged with murder in her death then allowed to plead to lesser felonies and given a 4 year prison term, of which she served just over two years.

unhealthy and illogical our culture has become - The US population should and would be healthier if it walked more; it would also improve air quality if cities were more pedestrian friendly - Cars should not have priorities over pedestrians.