Given the amount of flack which the prison service get for the amount paid out, it’s working-as-intended (a good deal of pressure to release people on time, and hence not to have to pay those fees). And indeed, it has got considerably better over the last five years.

The thing is really the ruling of Vehicular Homicide (2nd degree) against the mother of the child. As I said, it’s yet another situation where it’s not enough to grieve for child killed in a tragic accident. There has to be ‘justice’, which is more like ‘vengeance’ for the dead. The prosecutors have to ‘win’. It’s just vile. They’re not ‘teaching people a lesson’, they’re not ‘preventing this in the future’. They’re just maliciously ruining lives further. And the public goes along with it (see current Casey Anthony crap).

It’s good to be the government!

i asked about processing on the last cory maye thread; his attorney replied that they were just getting the records to determine his good time credit.

another week or more? sounds like they’re waiting to set up a shank deal. 50-50 he gets out of there alive.

Doesn’t make it any better, though.

That comment @ 10:19 [currently awaiting moderation] was me. I typed Andre’s name in the name box by accident.

Avert!

*circles widdershins thrice, spits on the ground*

In some jurisdictions there is such a thing as an implied crosswalk and it as legally binding as one that is marked. They have that in Baltimore and I forget the exact definition but it has to do with measuring plum lines between corners etc etc, but it basically means if someone is crossing at an intersection WITH THE LIGHTS, they are “in a crosswalk” whether it is marked or not.

In my current town, Florida college town, the city cops are on a well publicized campaign to ticket cars not stopping for legally crossing pedestrians and they have been VERY clear in all PR spots that this includes intersections with no marked crosswalk.

When I lived in small town in Northern New England the pedestrian was king. You were expected to stop even if someone crossed mid-intersection. This almost got me killed a number of times when I visited Boston or other towns where the drivers couldn’t have been bothered to give a damn and the cops cared even less.

I have no clue what the laws are in Atlanta.

I know you’ve done wonders for the guy already, but I don’t have a big bullhorn or contacts, and you do.

Likely the finding is something like “When crossing outside a crosswalk, you must yield right-of-way to a vehicle.” I know that I was taught that corners are the place to cross, but apparently the nanny-tendencies of roadway markings have taken it further to ‘pedestrians should only be in crosswalks’, which is ludicrous when you have a situation like that road, where there is no crosswalk between Roberta Drive and Cunningham Road, approximately 3/4 of a mile.

This is really a case of a weasel lawyer getting his weasel client off.