Discovery channel already covered how the tires are made to run at 300mph back in the late 90's

Comparison with the UK is rather fraught at best, despite a common cultural heritage that extends to our legal systems. You just don’t impose lengthy custodial sentences with even a fourth of our enthusiasm.

No, you have them because of ‘getting tough on crime legislators’ who impose these Draconian minimums to show they’re badasses.

That happens far less than throwing the book at a POC defendant.

See, I knew you weren’t simply curious. It would have been a lot easier for  both of us if you’d just left your angry rant in your first reply.

Because it is a very complicated issue that no single person can solve. Don’t get me wrong, I’m flattered by your faith in me to come up with a solution to the whole preservation of independence of the judiciary as well as the legislative effort needed to draft a system of checks and balances to remove as much…

No we don’t. We have them because politicians pretend that we do, and tout harsher and harsher extremes of sentencing despite all evidence that it doesn’t work in deterring crime. They are not intertwined at all. They are two similar looking, but unrelated issues.

None of which justifies the charging decisions the rather overzealous prosecutor made. And again let’s be real, there’s absolutely no possibility a white defendant would have faced the same “extreme indifference” charges - it’s those which are the big problem because of the mandatory minimums.

No it doesn’t.

Exactly. If you change it so whatever crime they got charged with has a mandatory minimum, the white prosecutor, who went to the school with the kid’s dad and sees him at barbeques every few weeks will just charge the kid with something else via plea bargain.

If you think mandatory minimums EVER hit white people harder than non-white people in the US, you are absolutely dreaming mate.

A layered one, with strong checks and balances.

“110 years is a lot.. but he forever ruined the lives of 4 or more families.”

I can’t help but feel like #3 is some serious idealization of human behavior. Everyone would love to be a hero sure. But I honestly don’t believe that most people are willing to potentially throw away their life away instead of someone else’s. I don’t think it is just that we should expect that in a trolley problem…

Pretty much any law crafted to appease the media masses is a bad law. Pretty much every law named after dead kids for instance.

“extreme indifference” doesn’t mean “intended”. 

... and this is why the “tough on crime” mandatory minimum sentences (which always seem to end up equalling “life in prison”, somehow) are simply bad public policy.

The nearest runaway ramp would be miles before this back up in hte foothills. He was hitting the western side of greater Denver rush hour traffic. Its a parking lot there every day at that time other crash or not.

Mandatory minimum laws are obscene in all instances.

Did this guy fuck up and deserve to go to jail? Certainly.