It is already a well-known fact that if you are wealthy, chances are you will get away crime – even murder or mass manslaughter. Now there is an official judicial precedent.
In the most egregious miscarriage of justice in American Judicial history, Texas state District Judge Jean Boyd has justified excessive wealth as a defense for the senseless killing of 4 human beings. Considering the terrible record of the U.S. justice system, that may seem to be a hyperbolic statement. It’s not.
It’s the truth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zIn2WYppsmQ
The United States “justice” system imprisons more people than any other industrialized nation, especially young black men, executes intellectually disabled inmates with the IQ of children, and allows the murder of young black males to go unpunished. It is hard to fathom that we can sink much lower.
But we have.
Defense Attorneys for a 16 year old Ethan Couch, a spoiled rich teenager from Keller, Texas successfully presented a defense known as “Affluenza”. Affluenza is defined as:
“a psychological malaise supposedly affecting wealthy young people, symptoms of which include a lack of motivation, feelings of guilt, and a sense of isolation.”
According to the defense psychologist, Gary Miller he “never learned to say that you’re sorry if you hurt someone,” Miller said. “If you hurt someone, you sent him money.”
Ethan is a high school graduate at the age of 16, so he is clearly intelligent. Did the unnamed private school for the wealthy where he was educated not teach him that driving while intoxicated is unacceptable or that society has rules? I’m sure they did. Unfortunately, the rules for wealthy society are far different from the rest of ours.
Miller continued, “This kid has been in a system that’s sick,” Miller said. “If he goes to jail, that’s just another sick system.”
Sending someone to prison for killing 4 people is now considered “sick”, while sending poor children to prison for possessing minor amounts of drugs is apparently deemed “healthy?
Eric Boyles, who lost his wife and daughter, first to this rich white teenager, and ultimately to a flawed justice system said “Money always seems to keep Ethan Couch out of trouble,” Boyles said. “Ultimately today, I felt that money did prevail. If Ethan had been any other youth, I feel like the circumstances would have been different.”
There is a mountain of evidence to prove his assertion. one such case is that of Sean Shevlino. He was 15 years old when he was tried as an adult and sentenced to 10 years in prison. How many people did he kill?
None. He committed armed robbery with a BB gun. I am not excusing his actions nor saying that he shouldn’t have been punished at all. But, his punishment should have been equal to his crime.
