Posted on 10/08/2008 11:22:52 AM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
Olga Franco, 24, convicted of driving the van in the Cottonwood school bus crash that killed four students, was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison.
She can expect to see her time cut by one-third to about 100 months -- 8 years and 4 months -- for good behavior, officials said.
Franco sat stone-faced when she heard the sentence.
Judge David Peterson, sitting specially in Lyon County, gave a lengthy explanation to families of how the law applied in the case and how he arrived at the sentence.
“I don’t imagine I have pleased anyone with this sentence. I am under no illusions,” he said.
He said he was required to look at conduct on one end and consequences on the other, as he tried to achieve a sense of general fairness.
Peterson said he is from the community and grew up 40 miles from the scene of the accident.
“I have to try to look at the entire situation through a lens that is at some distance,” he said.
He praised the families for getting through every day.
Franco faced a guideline sentence of between 6 1/2 years and 17 years, eight months for running a stop sign and crashing a minivan into the school bus at a rural intersection, killing four students and injuring 17 people.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
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2 years per death. Wow.
“Parents gave impassioned statements, many looking squarely at Franco, who sat quietly.”
+++++++++++++++++++++
Chances are, she didn’t know enough English to even understand half of what they were saying.
If it means anything, the Spanish word for Cottonwood is ‘Alamo’.
And I'm sure they would, because not having a driver's license or insurance, would be aggravating factor. I mean they're not trying to cover for a "protected" group or anything.
The only conclusion I can draw is that you are a rakist.
Owl_Eagle
There are people who are surrounded by bigots
and know it is wrong, but are afraid to be vocal against it.
These people are going to pull the lever for Obama
and they are not being polled.
angee_is_mad, DUmmy
ping
A sickeningly insufficient sentence.
I must be.....
I took a peek at the other local media websites and only one made mention that she was from “out of town”. Even then, all they reported was: “Franco, an immigrant from Guatemala,........”
If only we would have issued her a driver’s license...no, wait, people would still be just as dead.
The town should invite ICE in and round up her family and deport them while she’s serving.
She gets potentially less time for killing four Americans and hurting 17 others than two Americans got for shooting at an invader (Ramos and Compean). Tell me these people are not being protected.
Were I one of the parents I would be hard pressed not to do something illegal.
“. . . as he tried to achieve a sense of general fairness.”
If we were really going to be “fair,” this woman would be executed.
If it were just an matter of one or two “isolated incidents” by individual illegal alien criminals per community, chances are there would not be sufficient momentum for a coherent national “vigilante” movement.
Since such is not the case, chances are that eventually, we will be experiencing a backlash, on a national level.
It will be ugly, and may utterly destroy us all in the end.
But I don't see any way it will be avoided.
This is disgusting. I wish that the woman could spend much longer in jail.
I think that we need to have some kind of memorial page for all of those killed by illegal aliens; then send it to all (President on down) that support illegal immigration.
“.....some kind of memorial page for all of those killed by illegal aliens; then send it to all (President on down) that support illegal immigration.”
An excellent idea....
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