A mother and her children missed their bus and, after catching a later bus, arrived home after dark. After exiting the bus, the family and several other people who had been on the bus waited on the platform for traffic to clear so they could cross the street. The nearest crosswalk was 0.3 miles. While waiting, the son, who was holding a plastic bag with a goldfish he had purchased at Walmart, ran across the street without his mother's permission. He was hit and killed by a car that then sped away.

The driver was eventually identified. He pleaded guilty to hit-and-run and served a six month sentence.

The mother was convicted of vehicular homicide. Although she has not yet been sentenced, her sentence will probably be longer than that of the driver who fled the scene.

Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/07/21/275674/atlanta-vehicular-homicide/

Should the mother have been convicted?

No.

Absolutely not.

I misread it the first time. I somehow read WITH the mother's permision, not WITHOUT. Doh!

That said, the article was a biased piece of...

First, "peers" does not mean, "clones of the person on trial." You don't have to have anyone of the same color, background or any other commonality. They just have to be citizens like you.

Second, any parent knows you hold the hands of children that young when you cross a street. The mother was extremely negligent.

Still, she should not get more time than the hit and run driver. She should be penalized by the law, but not to the extreme that she is at risk for.

Josh