Townsend gets 30 days in jail

Orlando Sentinel ^ | March 29, 2006 | Amy C. Rippel

[andyk]

Ashley Townsend, a college student who ran a red light in 2004 and killed two girls as they crossed the street with their mother, has pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and was booked into the Orange County Jail One of her attorneys, Bill Barnett, would not comment.Tuesday evening, records show. Court records show the 23-year-old woman was booked into jail about 6 p.m. Tuesday and the Florida Highway Patrol was the arresting agency.

<snip>

She was ordered to serve 30 days in the Orange County Jail without the chance of work release. After she is released from jail, she will then be on seven years' supervised probation with the Department of Corrections, which can be transferred to Leon County. She also must serve 500 hours of community service, completing 10 hours per month by speaking to young drivers about safe driving. Her drivers license was revoked for three years Witnesses and authorities said Townsend ran a red light at Goldenrod and Bates roads and struck Anjelica Velez, 5, and Victoria Velez, 2, while they were crossing the street with their mother on Oct. 27, 2004.

[stands2reason]

If it was a hit and run, I'm even more disgusted.

[samantha]

Girl next door,Teacher,well to do,highly educated, but irresponsibly lousy driver.

[teenyelliott]

Yep, the link worked this time.

I cannot understand how those children's lives are only worth thirty days.

It is a crazy world.

[IRememberElian]

Thirty days for murdering two babies? WTF?

It was an ACCIDENT.

Should Laura Bush should be in prison too?

[radar101]

Or an Illegal Immigrant.
"We don' need no stinkin' laws".

[teenyelliott]

Should Laura Bush should be in prison too

I don't know what you are talking about with that, but going 45mph through a red light is not an accident. A car is a deadly weapon, and should be treated as such. 45mph toward an intersection, with pedestrians? How long would you have to be distracted from driving to NOT know you were approaching an intersection?

She pleaded guilty to homicide, and she gets one month for killing two children?

I am not saying she did it on purpose. But she did kill those children, and one month is insane.

[stylin19a]

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/laura.asp

[Brilliant]

Not enough.

[metalurgist]

It was an ACCIDENT.

I was going to post the same thing. However, after reading the hysterical calls for blood postings by so many self rightous, nose in the air, perfect assholes that never ever did anything wrong in their life, I decided it wasn't worth the effort to talk with these MADD mother, retribution types.

God bless you and good luck.

[andyk]

hysterical calls for blood postings by so many self rightous, nose in the air, perfect assholes that never ever did anything wrong in their life...MADD mother, retribution types

LMAO!

[Grn_Lantern]

Agreed. She's not going to re-offend.

Look, from a jurisprudential standpoint she didn't murder anyone. She didn't mean to kill those people. That's why we have statues like vehicular homicide and the like.

Terrible? Yes. Reprehensible? Sort of. She ran a red light. I've done that too. The difference was the results, and the legal system recognizes that: I got a ticket; she's a convicted felon. But the underlying act was the same.

What it comes down to is your philosophy on why we punish people? If the goal is to punish people so that they won't re-offend, then this sentence is probably appropriate. I highly doubt she will, in the future, run a red light and accidentally kill people. I'm not even sure that's possible; can you recommit an accident? If we punish primarily to deter others from participating in that conduct, this case is more complicated because of the innocuousness of the underlying act. I think everyone would agree that 30 days in jail is a severe punishment for running a red light. If that were the punishment, no one would run red lights. But here we're not punishing that, we're punishing running a red light and accidentally killing people. That confuses things and makes the entire deterrent effect questionable. No one wants to accidentally kill people (even people who would, on purpose, kill other, certain people). So I don't see what a more severe punishment does here ("It's not so bad if you run a red light, but just don't do it at an inopportune time"). Or maybe we punish people to make us feel better that we've put this person in jail? If that's your theory, that's fine, just admit to yourself that that's why you want the more severe punishment.

Having said this, it's, in my opinion, fairly obvious that this is a complicated issue. Legal scholars still fight about stuff like this, whether we should incarcerate people in order to make society feel better. That said, I hope this shed some light on why she probably got the deal she got from the state. This is rough to prove in front of a jury. Is it different if the light was green but she was putting on makeup? In that situation isn't there an argument she should have been watching the road and she took on that responsibility when she got behind the wheel? What if the light was yellow?

I'm not sure the state could have convicted, so they gave her the deal, and she, probably wisely, took it.

[YourAdHere]

Is she any relation to the Townsend/Kennedys?

[StAnDeliver]

"she will then be on seven years' supervised probation with the Department of Corrections, which can be transferred to Leon County."

Not a chance she gets through seven years without f'ing up again; at least enough to invoke a hearing to revoke her proby.

[HighlyOpinionated]

Locally we had a race-car-driver-in-training run over a mentally retarded boy who was off the roadway pushing his bike up a hill. The driver got fined $1500 and spent 40 days of a 45 day sentence in jail.

His father ran over a pedestrian when he was about the same age. He didn't even get the jail time, just court costs.

Runs in the family, I guess.

[patton]

Do you think she started out that day, "I think I will kill two babies today?"

Or do you think she cries herself to sleep, knowing the nightmares she will face, everyday?

[headstamp]

Excellent post.

I would also assume there will be a Civil case against her at a later date. Her being found guilty helps that prospect.

[darkangel82]

This being Florida, I'm surprised she wasn't tried for capital murder(and she should have been.)

[teenyelliott]

Okay, well, my opinion is that a wreck involving two vehicles is a tad different than running over pedestrians in a crosswalk.

Thanks for the link. I had never heard that.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Good post, but it won't mollify FR's Old Testament Retributionists.

[RHINO369]

"This being Florida, I'm surprised she wasn't tried for capital murder(and she should have been.)"

If you accidentally kill someone will you commit suicide?