“It’s horrible for everybody. Yeah, I lost my son, it’s harder on our family, but I don’t want the rest of her life ruined too. It isn’t going to make me feel any better,” he said.
As hard as it is to say something like that… we need more people like this.
It’s a nice sentiment, but…
This was premeditated. She needs to be held accountable and have consequences for what she willfully and knowingly did.
She literally killed people. I’m not sure this can be a case of “forgive and let her off lightly.”
I don’t think he’s saying she shouldn’t be accountable and face consequences. He’s said he didn’t want her to spend life in jail. That’s going to be pretty radical for a lot of folks.
Some people are going to think that life in prison or the death penalty should be the minimum consequence. Others are going to think that even a monster like this can repent, change and (unlike her victims) be allowed to live free eventually.
Edit. Yikes. Important typo. “Don’t”
That’s fair, and I get it. To me, that’s absolutely radical, especially if it was my child who was harmed.
I personally have just learned from experience that people who get off easy are likely to continue on the path of destructive behavior.
I’m not necessarily calling for her death or anything… but the punishment needs to fit the crime. Two lives are permanently gone from this world because of the careless and stupid choices she made.
For me, it’s not about whether or not she can change and repent. I’m all for prison reforms that make prison safe and offer inmates opportunities for growth and self-improvement while they serve their sentences, but I think punishments need to fit crimes and this girl intentionally killed two other people. I think a sentence of 15 years to life is actually a bit lenient (I’m used to 25 years to life being the standard for premeditated murder). I don’t think she should mandatorily have to spend her entire life in prison, but I also don’t think she should get to enjoy even fraction of the life she robbed those two boys of. Ideally, with good behavior, I’d like to see her get out at 45-50 years of age. She would still have a few decades left, but the prime of her life would be gone—no career, no kids. That seems fair to me.
And yet on the same turn, if the father was calling for the death penalty or even a lengthy prison sentence, you all would be admonishing the fact that he even got a say and stating this is why justice systems shouldn’t be about satisfying the victim at all.
The hypocrisy is really blatant and self-serving. Should people be punished for their crimes or not? If yes, then you need to support predetermined sentences for crimes that apply equally across all cases, including this one. If no, then you don’t really believe in justice or government, but something much more insidious.
There’s a middle ground between life in prison and just a slap on the wrist
I agree. 15 years is hardly “life” in prison, though. I think it’s more than fair.
Being 17, I’d attribute some of the blame to her parents or whomever owns that vehicle.
Is driving recklessly really the only symptom of being this emotionally deregulated? Did they not know how stupid or mentally ill she is?
I bet the adults around her did not care or excused her behaviour.
That’s fine, but she still made a conscious decision to do it. If she was one year older, would that make any kind of difference?
And let me be clear: mental illness can make some behaviors more understandable, but not murder– if the blame is put solely on mental illness, all that does is put more stigma on it. Not every shitty decision people make is because of “mental illness”.
Did they not know how stupid or mentally ill she is?
Just want to shout out here as an anxious and depressed person, the vast majority of the mentally ill are not psychopathic murderers. Mental health absolutely pays a role in decision making, but except for super extremely rare cases, it doesn’t turn someone into a murderer.
I witnessed this in a case. Young driver wasn’t paying attention and crossed the line, struck head on and killed an elderly woman on her way to chemotherapy, no joke.
On the recommendation and impassioned pleas of the victim’s family, the defendant plead a manslaughter charge down to a $75 fine for failure to maintain lane or some such infraction. I don’t remember all the facts but was struck by the forward thinking and empathy. The young driver was truly remorseful, part of the pleas were that he had suffered enough, that the memory of what he had done was punishment enough.
Definitely not the same situation at all. This wasn’t some distracted driver, she had literally threatened to do exactly this before.
From what I can tell, they never claimed it was the same situation. They said they’ve seen victims asking for a reduction in punishment, that’s all.
Chill out and stop jumping on people for something they never said.
Sounds like that was an accident, not homicide. That isn’t the same thing.
I can’t believe I’m being held responsible for my actions!!
If this were a case of a young driver who was driving irresponsibly fast and lost control of the car, killing their friends, that would be one thing. This is a 17 year old who repeatedly threatened her boyfriend with killing him while driving in the weeks before the accident, who made no attempt to avoid/stop ramming at full speed into a large building.
Yeah like, this wasn’t an accident. This was willfully killing someone. If she shot or repeatedly stabbed him, I don’t think you’d see the same sentiment. Something about hitting them with a mass of metal at high speeds is more sympathetic, because death by car strikes us at less violent.
I’d be incredibly proud of my mother if she could do that. Not many are capable of having empathy when someone they love is the victim.
During the investigation, she asked if they could just suspend her license for 10 years
“I just killed two people with a car, so I think being forced to use Uber for a decade is an appropriate sentence.”
It’s a shame she’s not a male athlete with a promising swimming career. Might have gotten off with having to take a remedial driving course and paid a small fine.
Oh! You’re talking about the sexual predator/rapist Brock Turner, who now goes by the name Allen Turner.
You do mean Brock Allen Turner who was indicted five charges: two for rape, two for felony sexual assault, and one for attempted rape? This all happened on January 18, 2015.
Honestly, if she hadn’t threaded to kill her boyfriend with her car before this happened, then I think suspending her license for a decade or two or may be life would be the right solution. Prison shouldn’t be a punishment, but a way to keep everyone else safe from dangerous people. If she won’t drive, then she isn’t a danger. But it sounds like she’s dangerous no matter what.
Yes, but mercy and rehabilitation should not come at the expense of the innocent.
Plus, when I think rehabilitating people in jail, I’m thinking of nonviolent offenses. Premeditated murder isn’t on my list of crimes I think someone can come back from, not when it’s like this.
The trial featured surveillance video played in court showing the moment Shirilla accelerated towards the building without stopping, until a gut-wrenching crash is heard.
Anyone capable of doing this deserves prison time.
Agreed. We know she did it on purpose and is a dangerous person in general, not just a careless or even reckless driver. She needs to be in prison to keep us safe. Shes different than someone who is merely a bad driver, or even a reckless driver who just needs to be kept out of a car to keep everyone around them safe.
Prison shouldn’t be a punishment
Yes, it absolutely should be. I can’t stand people who think the criminal justice system shouldn’t dole out punishments, but should only aim to rehabilitate people. You folks have absolutely no empathy for victims. Punishments are important, because criminals cause suffering to other people. The entire concept of justice is based on the idea that criminals should suffer at least a modicum of the harm they do to others as payment for their crimes. Over the centuries, we have done away with the “eye for an eye” model of punishment and decided that the worst sentences we can hand down are execution and life in prison, and most people today aren’t actually in favor of execution. Spending your life in prison is a slap on the wrist compared to being murdered.
I’m sure this girl could be rehabilitated within a few years. Under your model, she’d walk free while the parents and siblings of her victims were still trying to recover mentally from what she did to their families. Your lack of empathy for them is repugnant. You should feel ashamed.
Seems like you are blending the concepts of punishment and that of revenge. While a criminal, who’s crime has been proved in court should absolutely be punished for the crimes he/she committed according to the corresponding law, the sentences should not be led or even influenced by the feeling of “taking revenge for the victims”, because that’s not what a punishment should be about.
I guess this is one of the main differences between judicial systems and their underlying philosophies in the US and in Europe. While in the US the state can kill / execute some person, because this person has killed another person, that would be unthinkable in Europe, because the state does not have such a “right” and killing / executing a murderer would also be a crime against that person’s life.
European systems are more driven by the idea of “resocialising” criminals, so that they could eventually become acceptable members of society again some day.
Yeah! Instead the victims should be forced to pay for the perpetrator to live with free meals and housing for decades rather than attempting to treat the core of the issue if at all possible and turning these people ideally into healthy contributors to society as fast as humanely possible! That definitely helps the victims!
Just remember Ethan Couch in 2013 diagnosed with Afluenza, A condition where someone is too rich to understand the consequences of their actions.
He was 16. He and a bunch of friends went to Walmart. They stole beer and drove drunk. He killed 4 people on the side of the road. A passenger in his car suffered brain damage and was paralyzed.
This kid was sentenced with a 10 year parole. He violated that parole by going to a party to drink. He and his mom fled to Mexico to avoid punishment. He was captured and then given a 720 day sentence in prison.
He murdered 4 people and paralyzed one of his friends. He got parole. Violated parole. Fled the country. And then was given 2 years in prison.
Reading the article, the driver seems to have purposely accelerated into the building with the intention to kill her boyfriend.
Both are shitty but I would think this is worse
One teenager chose to drive drunk and he killed 4 people. This teenager got in a fight with her boyfriend (presumably) and killed 2 people.
Can you explain what’s worse?
Intent.
Driving drunk is absolutely stupid and anyone who does should be punished. The kids a shithead and deserved about 10 times more the prison sentence he got, but he did not start the night planning to kill 4 people with his friends. It was an accident, completely and absolutely preventable and one he is solely responsible for and should have gone to prison for his negligence, but an accident.
This girl told her boyfriend she would kill him this exact way. She had this planned. She drove by that same place earlier. She got in that car knowing it was going to to end the way it did.
The Ohio teenager dubbed “hell on wheels” — who was convicted of intentionally crashing her car at 100 mph into a building, killing her boyfriend and his friend — was sentenced to two concurrent 15 years to life sentences Monday.
Judge Russo shared blistering remarks and condemned Shirilla’s actions saying: “She had a mission, and she executed it with precision. The mission was death.”
Judge Russo said in handing down her verdict remarks that Shirilla was “literal hell on wheels,” saying she intentionally drove at an hour when not many witnesses would be around, on a path she didn’t routinely use but had visited days before.
Prosecutors argued in the trial that Shirilla had become turbulent and threatening towards her boyfriend and crashed to end their relationship.
Misleading as hell titles for this running around. I thought she was just driving fast based on what I saw in the headlines last week. She totally deserves the murder charges.
I mean, causing a crash and killing someone in the process of speeding is still deserving of a murder sentence.
I believe stateside it’s called ‘manslaughter’ in a case such as that. Manslaughter is “the crime of killing a human being without malice aforethought, or otherwise in circumstances not amounting to murder.” So no, it wouldn’t be deserving of a murder sentence… Edit: Unless the jury or judge deemed it so, of course.
There are judges in North Dakota, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and Texas that would say “well, were they protesting or something?”
Food for thought.
