it is far more complicated than just that,
this is not TV.
If this old man has a true physical ailment (if it was just mental he would be going to a mental facility)
"... Weller's health problems including severe heart disease would make him a burden on prison authorities and taxpayers, and that imprisonment would most likely kill Weller."
Now he is NOT a burden to the tax payers,
His conviction IS admissible for purposes of summary judgment in a civil trial,
AND
while alive he can be ordered to redo his life insurance beneficiaries if the law allows.
Plus probation is no cake walk. If he has the restrictive monitoring probation of the house arrest type, one little mis step and he is toast.
The fox article does not say the probation rules.
For murder they must be draconian.
For economic reasons, this makes sense.
However, ten lives were taken, and many others were severely injured. That kind of toll demands justice. There needs to be an accounting for those lives. If the idiot wasn't too old to drive, than he's not too old to suffer the consequences of his driving.
Probation doesn't cut it for me. Let him die in prison.