I think jurisdiction and the choice of prosecutor and judge do more to explain the incredible discrepancies we see in the mess that is the American justice system. You have to be very careful when contrasting different cases in different areas—there are so many cases and so many outcomes that it's very easy to cherrypick any two to make any point you want. Two examples:
The son of multimillionaire entrepreneur James Khuri killed a woman while speedracing his Lamborghini through Los Angeles. He was sentenced to serve a pathetic seven to nine months not in prison but in a youth camp and home detention.
On the other hand, Cameron Herrin killed a mother and her baby while speedracing his Mustang through the streets of Tampa—he was sentenced to twenty-four years in prison.
They're the same age. They're both rich. They're both white boys. They were both speedracing. And yet their sentences could not be more different. Frankly, it sounds like California is just soft-on-crime when it comes to vehicular offenses.
In the case of the Cuban truck driver, he was railroaded by local sentencing laws that forced the judge to sentence him to consecutive terms for each individual victim. Even the prosecutor in that case is now filing motions to get his sentence reduced.
Justice is not perceived as a service rendered to paying customers. Misbehaving policemen, prosecutors and judges have legal armors that makes it nigh-impossible to punish.
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