LETTER: Hard to fathom lack of charges in infant death
July 21, 2012 at 5:44 am in The Daily Republic
I have been following the investigation of the Brooklyn Howard story since hearing of her death on June 19.
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LETTER: Hard to fathom lack of charges in infant death
3 Comments
Of course the child’s death was tragic and devastating to all parties. But, without knowing the details and circumstances of what truly happened, I find your letter to be a knee jerk reaction based on what you have gleaned from the press and believe to be true.
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If the writer understood the legal system she might not be so perplexed. Negligence does not always rise to the level of “criminal negligence” and not every accident that happens is criminal, no matter how horrific. Particularly if no laws were broken which contributed to the accident. That’s criminal law.
Now “civil law” is another thing entirely. The standard of proof is not as strict and there may in fact be a cause of action for a civil suit. The wheels may already be in motion for that to happen in the above case. We won’t know until something is filed and even then we may not.
If we need a recent example of a shoddy criminal system, a better example would be the tragic death of young Bella Morgan. Some of the pertinent facts related to that case was that she was thrown from the vehicle and that the driver of that SUV (a mother herself) had none of the kids buckled in. Did a drunk driver hit that SUV, you bet. Did the fact that no seat belts were in use contribute to the child’s death? You decide. Better yet, let a jury decide. As far as I know there have been no charges for this tragic example of criminal negligence.
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but seat belts are not required in the back seat so that would be why there have been no charges
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