Nestande Sentencing

What happens when you drink and drive, run over a woman with your car and then flee the scene while she dies in the street? Well, if you do it in Austin, you get probation.

I haven't been this angry about a court case since Casey Anthony.

The jury's punishment is completely ludicrous. Holy tap-dancin' Moses-- she killed someone and was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide. They commented that she had never been in trouble before. That may be relevant if you are being convicted of stealing a tank of gas. You don't get one free homicide because you've been a good girl all your life.

The most deplorable action here is that Nestande didn't stop. If your windshield is shattered by something you even think is "a deer," wouldn't you stop? Who would just continue driving? Commenters on news stories about the trial have said that they have hit deer and stopped out of concern for the DEER. Her testimony is such a crock. She knew exactly what she hit and she was scared, because she was drunk or had at least been drinking and didn't want a DUI.

Smart, since obviously, at least in Travis County, a DUI carries a stiffer sentence than criminally negligent homicide.

Let's say you killed someone completely by accident. Someone walked in front of your car while you were going 65mph on the freeway, while you were completely sober and not texting on your cellphone. This happens on I-35 all the time. (WTF? Stop walking across the freeway, people. Please let me direct you to this thing they call an "overpass.") Drivers who leave the scene of those accidents are charged with failure to stop and render aid, where they wouldn't have been guilty of a gosh darn thing, had they stopped. Normal people stop when they run over a human being. They help. They call 911.

How could they NOT convict her on failure to stop and render aid? GAH.

There are a lot of discussions online about this being a Travis County issue, that juries are typically lenient with drunk drivers as a group. APD Chief Art Acevedo issued a statement about the sentence, and actually said it's a problem in all areas of criminal law in Travis County:

While I'm deeply disappointed, I'm not surprised about the jury's decision(s) based upon a history of permissiveness in our community as it relates to holding criminal suspects accountable for their actions.

My heart goes out to the Griffin family who have been sentenced to a lifetime without their loving daughter, with woefully minor consequences for the individual responsible for this senseless and completely avoidable tragedy.

The men and women of the Austin Police Department will continue to tirelessly pursue those who place our community and families in dire risk of serious injury and death as a result of their criminal acts. We will also join the Texas law enforcement community in vigorously pursuing penalty enhancements at the Legislature for those who fail to stop and render aid to their victims.

I hope Nestande suffers some consequences of her extraordinarily irresponsible actions in her own heart and mind, since she won't be paying any sort of price in the justice system.

My heart goes out to Courtney Griffin's family. When asked what message this decision sent to the rest of Austin, Courtney's birth mom said, in complete frustration and anguish, “Everybody just go out tonight, drink, get behind the wheel, drive through neighborhoods and hit innocent people.”

So sad.