Two fathers receive different forms of justice in hot-car deaths

[SemiCharmedQuark]

-Snip-

"College professor Mark Warschauer says he simply forgot his 10-month-old son Mikey was in the car. Horse groom Antonio Balta claims he didn't know the car would get hot enough to harm his 9-month-old daughter, Veronika."
...
Authorities ruled Mikey's death an accident and decided not to prosecute. But Warschauer cannot let himself off quite so easily."
...

Veronika cried around large crowds, so Balta says he left her in the car. He cracked the windows just a hair, he says, because he was afraid someone might take her.

...

The first two times Balta left the air-conditioned betting parlor to check on Veronika, she was playing happily with a stuffed toy that he'd won for her in a Kentucky claw machine - a rabbit dressed in a striped prison uniform. But then he got caught up in the races, and before he knew it, about 45 minutes had gone by.At trial, a psychologist testified that Balta's IQ was just 74. Balta's defense attorney called him "borderline retarded."

...

She declared Balta's actions "totally callous" and sentenced him to 20 years. When he gets out, he will be deported."


-Snip-

http://www.fresnobee.com/384/story/98029.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Different IQ's=different types of justice?

But those innocent babies are the ones paying the ultimate price...

How sad this is.

Totally unnecessary...

[KitchenWitch]

2. Brown people...bad...must do time.

[BDW1964]

5. Let's toss out racism out of habit....

If you read the details the difference in sentencing is due to intent. In the first case, the father simply forgot the child in the car. How that can happen baffles me, but I know it can as my mother forgot me in K-Mart once as a small child. The first case is, if the excuse is true, an accident.

The second case was not an accident. The father left the child in the car repeatedly, while he was gambling. In this instance, the father deliberately placed his child in danger. However, I guess it is just a habit to toss out remarks that racism is the root of the differential prosecution. This type of uninformed, knee jerk assessment is one of the reasons people tend to not pay attention when real racism is the real root of the problem. Like Bush, if you cry wolf enough, no one pays attention when the real wolf comes along.

[pnwmom]

10. You're right, the two cases are very different.

Thanks for the thoughtful post and welcome to DU!

[Bluebear]

19. Fine, how about going to work vs. being drunk and forgetting your child?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1465745&mesg_id=1465745

20 years prison versus no prison.

is this also "tossing racism out of 'habit'?"

[Bluzmann57]

3. About four or five years ago, there were TWO cases here

One was an African-American crackhead guy who left his daughter in the car for five hours in 90 degtree heat to get drugs. He was charged with first degree murder and got life without parole. A few months later, a white suburban housewife left her kid in a car at the mall, he died, and she got...probation.
I happened to serve on the jury which convicted the first person of murder. I know that this guy was negligent and should not get out of prison until he dies. But judging by the facts the local newspaper and TV gave us, the woman knew she was wrong and should have gotten some sort of prison time. She was actually quoted as saying, "All I wanted to do was try on some outfits for my sister's wedding."
Now as an individual who served on a first degree murder case, I must tell you that it was one of the most agonizing things I have ever done, convicting this guy for first degree murder. We all make mistakes. But the guy was guilty, we decided he was, and the law states that he be sentenced to life without parole. The woman seemed callous and while I was not on the jury, I think I may have leaned toward murder charges had I been serving. Were race and/or the "social status" factors in charges filed? I believe so. And I believe that is still the case.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

4. I see a distinction in the cases

One man forgot his child was in the car, and the other man intentionally left his child in the car.

That difference of intent makes quite a difference as far as I'm concerned.

[alarimer]

7. But the white guy should have gotten some kind of punishment

even if all he was guilty of was negligence.

[Pavulon]

9. Dont get hooked

there are cases where people of all races have done this. Most of the time they are not charged or get no jail time.

Not about race..

[pnwmom]

12. What does his color have to do with it? You don't think losing his child

was punishment?

Nothing they can do to him will touch him compared to the knowledge that he is going to have to live with for the rest of his life.

[alarimer]

6. Well it wouldn't have anything to do with the color of their skin?

It couldn't possibly since we have a colorblind justice system. :sarcasm:

[Pavulon]

8. Don't take the bait, mental shortcut

a cursory read shows an accidental incident vs an incident where the person knew the kid was in the car, and went about their day.

[BlooInBloo]

11. It never does.

[pnwmom]

14. Crying wolf isn't a good strategy.

The circumstances are different enough to justify the different outcomes, regardless of the ethnicity of the men.

[BlooInBloo]

15. Oh - well - if white folks say it has nothing to do with race, then anyone else...

... is just crying wolf.

It really is a wonderful racket we've created for ourselves.

[pnwmom]

18. When the circumstances are that different,

it is not reasonable or just to assume that the outcomes should have been the same.

If they were both white, or both hispanic, the different outcomes wouldn't surprise anyone. One case involved deliberate, intentional neglect. The other involved an overly tired father and a change in schedule that put the baby in his car instead of the mother's -- and he forgot the baby was back there.

[Bluebear]

17. Well, then, let's examine another couple cases:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1465745&mesg_id=1465745

[pnwmom]

20. Those cases are much better examples

of cases where the justice system acted in an inequitable manner.

I'm not denying that that happens; I'm just saying that the cases in the OP don't support the point the writer appears to be making.

[pnwmom]

13. The circumstances were completely different.

If we knew nothing about ethnicity here, we wouldn't be wondering why the outcomes were different.

[Mutineer]

16. Upper middle-class, educated white guy gets off and

lower-socioeconomic, minority goes to jail. So why is this news to you? :shrug: Money equals better lawyers. better lawyers equals less time or no time in jail. The wonder of it is that the U.S. still offers public defenders to anyone. I'm surprised they haven't been outlawed too.

[pnwmom]

21. Guy who deliberately leaves his child so he can bet at the races goes to jail.

Guy who was up half the night with his baby, then gets off schedule and forgets his baby is in the car (when he goes to work) doesn't go to jail.