Monday, April 27, 2015

Sentences in Florida A&M Band Death by Lydia Petree, P.4

In November 2011, band member and student Robert Champion, 26, died after a band hazing incident. On a bus after a football game in Orlando, Florida, new members were beaten as they ran down the aisles by senior members. After multiple traumas, Champion died an hour after the incident. His autopsy ruled his death homicide. Four years later, the last three defendants have been prosecuted in the case. A jury in Florida deliberated almost three hours and came back with guilty verdicts of manslaughter and hazing resulting in death for the three students, now 22, 25, and 28 years old. The sentencing will finally occur this June. Until then, they will be in the county jail. Fifteen defendants in all were prosecuted, most took plea deals. The last one got 77 months in prison. These three were the last to be examined in order to close out the case.

This case is another example of the delayed judicial system in the United States. It takes years for some to get justice, and for others, justice will never be reached. Some that are innocent spend a lifetime in prison, as seen by numerous headlines. It's only the pushing back from various organizations that lead these cases to even be reopened. Other flaws in our judicial system include the fact that relatively small crimes, such as possession of marijuana, can lead to years in high security jails while other more violent crimes require less jail time. Not to mention the discrimination that occurs throughout the system. White people get lesser sentences again and again. This delayed justice is one of the better outcomes that have come forth from the US judicial system in recent years.

 http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/24/us/florida-am-hazing-death/index.html

1 comment:

  1. I completely agree. The judicial system has taken such a long time for a verdit that should have been reached years sooner. Sometimes it does take a lot of time due to lack of evidence, but this seems pretty evident and obvious.

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