re: Jeanerette cop dies in chase while not wearing seatbelt - Manslaughter charges

..I blame Ford motors.

There's prosecutorial discretion for a reason. Following the letter of the law in all cases rarely provides justice to anyone. When you lose sight of that and follow all laws with absolute rigidity, you end up with our current problems- such as over criminalization, massive population of incarcerated people, and general resentment of law enforcement.

Those who can't see the spirit of the law won't see the bigger problems either. That's why our country is screwed.

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Not going to waste any more time arguing with people who don't think it's manslaughter but won't even read the actual statute

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Here is the definition of DUI manslaughter:


DUI manslaughter is when a person is driving with a blood alcohol content over the legal limit and causes an accident which results in the death of another person or persons.



So explain to me why it wasnt considered an open and shut case? I have read your statute. I understand exactly what it says. But to think there arent extenuating circumstances that change case to case is asinine

In fact, to think this is such an easy case is stupid. They will see if the cops driving was too reckless, was he focused, was he under protocol, would the seatbelt have saved his life etc etc. It isnt as simple as just reading a freaking statute and ending the case in 5 minutes. Could they still be guilty of manslaughter? Absolutely. But there will be multiple things that go into determining that.

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DUI manslaughter is when a person is driving with a blood alcohol content over the legal limit and causes an accident which results in the death of another person or persons.



So explain to me why it wasnt considered an open and shut case? I have read your statute. I understand exactly what it says. But to think there arent extenuating circumstances that change case to case is asinine0

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He didn't cause the accident. That was hard.

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So if a cop makes a traffic stop and accidentally shoots himself while getting out of the car does that also result in charges? I mean, his or her death would be directly related to the traffic stop.

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That's a very poor analogy. In your example, the citizen wasn't fleeing from the officer, nor was he engaging in dangerous activity.

I think a reasonable person would conclude that evading police at high speeds that ends in a crash (with apparent attempts to physically cause a crash during the process) significantly led to the high speed accident and thus the death of the officer. The fact that the officer wasn't wearing a seat belt probably contributed to his death, but it doesn't change the fact that the suspect fleeing at high speeds also significantly contributed to his death.

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He didn't cause the accident.

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He ran into the guy with his car Also, who caused the accident in the cops case? DId the suspects run into the cop?

The cop needs to be given a seat belt ticket.

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The law doesn't care in this case,

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So you dont think there will be a case here? Just send them to jail after reading the statute?

I can speak from experience that if someone is involved in a two vehicle crash and Vehicle 1 causes Driver 2, who is not wearing a seatbelt, to be ejected and killed, Driver 1 is getting some version of a homicide charge. I've seen it many times.