Justice Gone Haywire: The Raquel Nelson Case

A day ago I received an email from change.org regarding a petition to tell a Georgia judge to not jail a mother who was grieving her son who had been killed in a hit and run accident. I was surprised that this could actually happen, so I went on google to find out anything I could about the mother and what had happened to her famiy. 

The Raquel Nelson Interview with the Today Show

The story starts off on the night of April 16. 2010 when Raquel Nelson and her three children had gotten off at the bus stop across from their home in Marietta, Georgia. As several others who had gotten off at the same stop began crossing the dark street, AJ, Raquel's son, took off with the crowd perhaps thinking that it was their turn to cross the street. Immediately Raquel ran after her son and in that moment tragedy struck in the form of a tan SUV that sped off after hitting Raquel, her daughter, and AJ. While Raquel and her daughter suffered minor injuries, AJ was not so fortunate and died a few hours after being admitted to the hospital.
Police eventually arrested the driver, Jerry Guy, who admitted to a "few beers", painkillers, and a being partly blind in one eye. So now not only was it hit and run, but also a case of negligent driving (though the ads say buzzed driving equals =  drunk driving, it looks like the law books haven't caught up yet). Originally Guy was charged with first degree vehicular homicide, cruelty to children, and hit and run, but in the end he was only found guilty of hit and run. Though this had been his third time being convicted with a hit and run, Guy served only 6 months of jail and was allowed to spend the remaining 5 years of his sentence on probation.
Ironically the charges that Guy were not convicted with were used by the Georgia Solicitor General's office in convicting Raquel. She was charged with reckless conduct, improperly crossing a roadway and second-degree homicide by vehicle. Each of these crimes is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum punishment of 12 months in prison, so in total Nelson  faces a maximum of 36 months, or three years, in prison during her sentence hearing tomorrow.
The circumstances of this case seem utterly bizarre to me in many different aspects.

1. Why was Guy given such a light sentence and then allowed to serve probation, this being his third time being the perpetrator in a hit and run?
2. Coincidentally Nelson was charged with her crimes after the Atlanta Journal Constitution ran a high profile article regarding jaywalkers noting that Nelson had not been charged with anything. Georgia DA saving face?
3. She's being charged with second degree vehicular homicide- so aside from the fact that she was not in a vehicle, and interpreting the crime as a crime of negligence, the charge still doesn't make sense. Indeed, she had not crossed at a cross walk (whose location about 3/10 of mile away has been source of previous complaints before this incident) but she did run after her son and was also hit in the process. I see no negligence in her effort to save her son.
4. Reckless conduct? Really? Really? Not to mention that even the hit and run driver had not been charged with reckless conduct, it should be the Georgia department of motor vehicles that should be charged with reckless conduct in allowing a person with such a bad driving record on the streets.
5. She was an African American single parent convicted by a jury of all middle class whites (jury of peers, anyone?) who did not use public transportation. While Nelson, herself has been very cautious about "pulling the race card" in regards to her trial- I think that the biases of jury, most likely their assumptions towards African American single mothers were clearly reflected in their speedy conviction of all three counts.
6. Probably the point of most contention is the fact that Nelson did not use a cross walk. First of all, I don't think the power of crosswalk would have prevented Guy from committing a hit and run while under the influence. Second of all, Nelson was just trying get her family home since it was dark and late outside- the dark cross walk 3/10 of mile away seemed just as bad if not worse, then just crossing the street in front of them. Third, SEVERAL people successfully crossed the street before the Nelsons did- and it was only the unfortunate chance that Guy happened to be drunk driving along the street that caused the tragedy.
7. Why is there so much focus on the mom? In all of the threads and comments regarding the story it seems like everybody is focusing on Raquel and how she failed to use the cross walk. Why isn't their outrage at how Guy is able to serve the rest of his sentence on probation? Why was he even allowed to drive in the first place with such a horrific record? Why do we put so much blame on the mother who has lost her son, and not on the actual man who killed him? Sexism, anyone?
8. How is putting a Raquel Nelson in jail for three years when she still has two young daughters to raise going to benefit society in any way? As an example to warn to people not to jaywalk if you're a single parent African American woman? Or that it will serve as legal precedent on how you can get away relatively unscathed if you kill a child in a hit and run after popping some pain pills and washing it down with beer? Or to show that justice is blind- completely blind to even common sense.
9. A commentator once said about the conviction of Nelson that "fairness has taken a backseat to justice"- to continue this car analogy I think fairness has not only taken the backseat, but has also been thrown out the window (letting Guy get out on parole), trampled once by justice reversing the car (charging Nelson with crimes), and run over once again by justice driving that car straight to sentencing.

One way to help out Raquel and the Nelson family is by signing the petition below that asks the judge to not sentence Raquel to jail. It also is requesting a new cross to be installed to prevent future tragedies from occurring. http://www.change.org/petitions/cobb-county-ga-release-grieving-mother-of-hit-and-run-install-a-crosswalk

For more on the story regarding the Nelson case go here and here.

I'll be waiting for the verdict tomorrow- hopefully it will be that Nelson can go back home to her little girls and move on with the loss of her son.