This kind of thing has happened before in the past. Craig MacTavish, a former NHL player who is now a coach, spent a year in jail back in the mid-1980s on a vehicular manslaughter charge when he was involved in a drunk driving accident in which the other driver -- a woman from Maine, I think -- was killed.
That's why I think this guy got off too easily.
It happened in Virginia, in 1912, as a matter of fact:
“Who fired the first shot in the courtroom on March 14, 1912?”
Thursday morning dawned cold, wet and foggy. A bone-chilling drizzle was falling from the slate-gray clouds, but it wasn’t doing much to melt the snow that still lay on the ground. Despite the miserable weather, over a hundred spectators had crowded into the courtroom by 8 a.m.; a lucky few were warming their hands over the wood stove in the rear of the room. The Allen family was well represented: Floyd; his sons Victor and Claud; Sidna Allen; Jack Allen’s son Friel; Sidna and Wesley Edwards, and a sprinkling of other relatives.
What happened next will never be known with absolute certainty. The issue of who fired the first shot has divided Carroll Countians for the past 70 years and, in the words of one Richmond researcher into the case, has caused the county to “shut itself off from the rest of the world.”
Most witnesses agree that Floyd Allen stood up and announced to the court some-thing like, “Gentlemen, I just ain’t a goin’.” A shot was fired, and for the next 90 seconds the courtroom became a shooting gallery as the Allens, Dexter Goad, William Foster and the law officers, all produced guns and began to exchange fire. A screaming, shouting mass of spectators tried to leave the courtroom at once as bullets whizzed over their heads and thumped into the courtroom walls. Attorney Bolen dropped to the floor and the wounded Floyd Allen fell on top of him. Bolen is said to have screamed at his client, “Floyd, they are going to kill me shooting at you!” The battle moved down the courthouse steps and out onto the streets of Hillsville, with some of the Allens hiding behind the statue of the Confederate soldier while reloading their pistols. The Allens headed for the livery stable. Back in the courtroom. Judge Massie, Sheriff Webb, Commonwealth’s Attorney Foster and a juror named C.C. Fowler lay dead on the floor. A witness in another case, Betty Ayers, walked back to her home and died the following day. Dexter Goad had been shot in the mouth but recovered from his wounds.