I guess my entire point is that it dosent make sense to me, if the dude crashed because he wasnt a good driver it would have happened anywhere, Lancaster, NYI, the moon…
So basically because the race was in the wrong forum (the street vs the track) the punishment should be years in jail vs nothing at all??
Let it stand as a lesson though, basically if you race anyone on the street they may crash and burn for no apparent reason and then you have to face decades in jail and tens of thousands in legal fees
Exactly, which is why he was charged. The grey area will be decided by a jury if it ever goes to trial. My guess the kid takes a plea long before this ever sees a courtroom.
You don’t understand the difference between illegal racing on the street and legal racing on the track? That’s why one can get charged and the other can’t. When you enter into an illegal activity with someone you become legally bound to the outcome of that activity.
As for “he didn’t cause the accident” I think that will be a big argument in court. The prosecution will argue that had the neon driver not raced the Mustang never would have reached those speeds, no crash, both of them would still be alive.
The defense will argue that the Mustang may very well have taken off like that even if the Neon wouldn’t have raced. We’ve all had people throw revs at us and then take off like a bat out of hell at a light. Can you get to reasonable doubt there? Maybe?
The other big argument will be over the word “cause”.
Srsly, and not trying to be a dick. I want to know why you think the people that attend their jury duty would see this any differently then Frank Clark.
the key word in the statute is could. could implies an assessment of risk.
how often do street races occur?
how often do street races result in a fatality?
what is the percentage of street races that result in fatality? is the risk really that high? (i am just asking though provoking questions…)
for the sake of argument, let’s say that .1% of street races end in a fatality, so 1 out of 1000 (which it is probably much less). People on this forum have participated in countless street races, and a lot still do. Very few have died.
also, in this specific situation, the risk was assessed and disregarded by two separate parties. so assuming the risk is .1%, and the fatality wasn’t wholly caused by the action of one party, why should the second party be held responsible for a felony when the risk was so low and very weakly causally linked?
all it takes is one juror to disagree with frank. if i were a defense attorney, i would be confident that a compelling argument would get at least 25% of the population on my side.
jurors aren’t allowed to read anything about the case, watch tv, or know anything outside of the information of the court room or the aren’t allowed to be a juror…most of the them have no knowledge of the legal system. and this case is different than any other, so how would them watching the news matter?
he has a much greater chance of acquittal if one juror of many decides he is not responsible for the other guy’s actions. on the other hand, putting your life in the hands of one judge doesn’t seem like a great option.
I love how nikuk is just playing devils advocate here. Someone needs to find out this kids user name and change his title to “OWNED: Frank clark style” or “Bloody ass” or “Soap on a rope plz” or “Anal Pride” or “No showers plz” or “nodixplz” or " Frank Clark’s Bitch" or “Looser ass than skunks”