RadioBanter - View Single Post - Elderly driver who killed 10 too ill for prison, gets probation

dxAce · October 2nd 07, 09:09 AM posted to rec.radio.shortwave

wrote:

You have to pay for the worthless parasites inside or out of the
joint.

LOS ANGELES -- An 89-year-old man whose car hurtled through a farmers
market, killing 10 people, was let off on probation Monday by a judge
who said he believed the defendant deserved to go prison but was too
ill.

George Russell Weller was convicted Oct. 20 of 10 counts of vehicular
manslaughter with gross negligence in a case that renewed debate over
whether elderly people should lose their driver's licenses.

Weller, confined to a sickbed, was not in court for his sentencing.

Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson said he agreed with the jury and
called Weller's actions callous and showing "an enormous indifference
to human life."

Weller was 86 when his 1992 Buick Le Sabre plowed at freeway speed
into the crowded farmers market on July 16, 2003. In addition to the
10 killed, more than 70 people were injured.

Weller could have received up to 18 years in prison, but the judge
said Weller's health problems, including severe heart disease, would
make him a burden on prison authorities and taxpayers, and that
imprisonment would most likely kill Weller.

Defense attorneys argued that Weller was a victim of "pedal error" in
which he panicked and mistook the car's accelerator for the brake.
Prosecutors said he was careless to the point of criminal negligence.

The judge noted that Weller had enough control of his vehicle to avoid
cars and trucks within the farmers market.

The judge also called Weller's apologies hollow.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

Wake up! It's now late 2007.