Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

Some incidents resonate in both the personal injury and criminal law contexts, which enables both our injury blog and our criminal law blog to examine the issue from both sides of the spectrum. The situation that will be discussed here and on www.tennesseeinjurylawyerblog.com today is one of those situations. An eighteen year old New York woman has been charged with manslaughter after she drove a van into the yard of a sixty-nine year-old lady while she was mowing, running her over and killing her. The young lady claims the car was out of control at the time of the incident and that she was pressing the brake to try to stop the vehicle. The young lady was apparently high on painkillers when she ran over her victim, having been released prematurely from drug rehab recently due to insurance issues. To make matters worse, the driver did not seem to express much remorse, reportedly telling the police: "The thing that made me feel not so bad was she was old. I mean, 70 years is a long time to live."

In Tennessee, the young lady would be looking at a vehicular homicide charge under T.C.A. §39-13-213. This charge can be applied to any situation where a driver recklessly kills another person by operation of a motor-driven vehicle as a result of that driver’s intoxication. This offense is a Class B felony in Tennessee, and is punishable by up to thirty years in prison.

The bright side for many defendants facing such charges, however, is that the application of mitigating factors such as acceptance of responsibility or showing remorse can substantially reduce a defendant’s sentence when faced with a scenario such as this. However, making statements to the effect that you do not feel so bad because the victim was old and her best days were behind her will do little to increase your chances of obtaining lenience from the court at sentencing based on these factors. Defendants would be better off to consult with an experienced criminal defense attorney as early in the process as possible in order to maximize the chances for a reduced sentence and a favorable resolution to the case.

Source: http://www.1010wins.com/Woman-Charge...as-Old/6869742