Justice In Georgia?

In April of 2010, Raquel Nelson, a mother of 3, was crossing a highway in Marietta, Georgia, with her three kids after getting off a public bus. The nearest legal crosswalk was three tenths of a mile down the street and her home was almost directly across from the bus stop. Rather than walk over half a mile with her children just to get home Nelson and her kids, along with other passengers from the bus, chose to jaywalk. They got to the median and waited for traffic to clear. Tragically, her four year old son ran ahead on the second half of the crossing and was struck by a car, along with his mother and sister, who had run after him. Little A.J. was killed.

The driver of the vehicle fled the scene, then later returned and admitted he had been drinking and taking pain killers prior to the accident. He was also partially blind in one eye and had a history of two previous hit-and-runs. He was originally charged with hit and run and first degree vehicular homicide. These charges were reduced to hit and run and he received a five year sentence. He served six months in prison and has been released to do the rest of his sentence on probation. Huh?

Raquel Nelson was recently convicted of jaywalking and 2nd degree vehicular homicide for the death of her son. She faces up to three years in prison on these convictions, more than three times the amount of time served by the drinking driver. There’s something terribly, terribly wrong here.

This woman made a decision, albeit a bad one in retrospect, to get her children home without subjecting them to a 45 minute walk just to get back to a place directly across the street. I’m sure it wasn’t the first time she had done it. There were other adults and children in the group with her – she didn’t break the jaywalking law alone. The driver of the car had been drinking and had a history of hit and run and he served 6 months for killing a child.

This woman lost her son in an accident that she herself was partly responsible for. There’s no punishment a court can dole out that will come close to what she will have to live with for the rest of her life. Unless you’re insane, to know you’re responsible for the death of your child would be far more difficult to live with than jail. Not to mention the fact that if she’s placed in prison she’ll be taken away from her other children, who already lost their brother.

So the drinking driver with the history of hit and run kills a child crossing the street and serves six months and the mother of that child, who was trying hard just to get her children home as quickly as possible, faces up to three years? (Her sentencing hearing is today, July 26th.) I truly hope the judge understands the travesty here and does not give Ms. Nelson jail time. To put this woman in jail would be a truly poor ending to an already tragic situation. As for the jurors who convicted her – maybe they should have been on the jury in Orlando a couple of weeks back.