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Penalties are too lenient for drunk drivers who kill

Last Friday in the American state of Florida, 27-year-old Chad Mattson stood up and waited for a judge to pronounce his sentence. A few seconds later Mattson learned that he would be spending the next 15 years of his life behind bars. Chad Mattson's crime? He got behind the wheel of a car after consuming alcohol and struck and killed Taylor Smith, a 15-year-old cyclist. Mattson's sentence was more severe than most because he also fled the scene and hid in the woods for several hours before turning himself in to the police. After Mattson eventually gets out of prison, he still has another 15 years of probation to serve, during which time he cannot touch alcohol or narcotics. He will also have to pay restitution, perform community service, shoulder court fees and pay fines. The judge also added a further requirement: For the rest of Mattson's life on each anniversary of the September 28th accident, he must visit Taylor's grave and spend half an hour there reflecting on what he did.

Last Tuesday Taipei prosecutors indicted UK national Zain Dean for a fatal hit-and-run drunk driving accident. Prosecutors allege that Dean left a nightspot in the wee hours of March 25th and while intoxicated, slammed into a motorcycle-riding newspaper delivery worker surnamed Huang who was killed after being thrown some 80 meters from the site of the collision. For his part, Dean claims he asked an employee of the nightspot to drive him home in his car and that he has no recollection of the incident. The authorities pointed out that the employee was recorded on video returning to his work station just a few minutes after being asked to drive Dean home, lending credibility to the employee's claim that Dean asked him to exit the vehicle after a few moments and continued the drive alone. Prosecutors seem to have a reasonably airtight case against Dean. When the requested sentence was announced, however, many in Taiwan were shocked — two and a half years behind bars for a fatal drunken hit-and-run?

Comments
April 28, 2010    mtsai16@
A dubious luxury for Dean?

He knows that he got off the hook but will live for the rest of his life with the ponderous thought that he took away another life while driving intoxicated.
April 28, 2010    elumpen@
I doubt it, mstai. The guy is obviously a complete scumbag if he even tried to lie his way out of it - knowing, as he must have done, that Taiwan's drunk-driving laws are a joke and he wouldn't have pretty much got away with it regardless. I seem to recall, though, that UK law was changed so that people who commit crimes abroad can be prosecuted in the UK. Not sure how that works in practice, but this nasty piece of work seems a prime candidate.

The article is spot-on, but it misses a more crucial point: in Taiwan, cars have more rights than people. It's perfectly OK to kill or injure someone with a car because, hey, cars, like, contribute to the economy, and, er, stuff (such is the quality of the arguments usually deployed to make the point). This is true regardless of whether you are drunk or not. I once had to pay compensation to a taxi driver who knocked me off my scooter because I scuffed his paintwork as my flesh came into contact with his vehicle. When the law works like that, it's no surprise that killing people with your car is considered no more serious than er .. well, come to think of it, hacking people to death with a meat-cleaver tends not to attract much of a prison sentence, either. Maybe there just aren't enough spaces in the jails.
July 2, 2010    JohnAdams@
I think the China Post is missing the point here. Yes, different countries have different degrees of sentencing for crimes, but the point is, NO ONE in the history of Taiwan has ever received a sentence of 2.5 years for this kind of crime in Taiwan. That's just simple racism. Why should a foreign national be given a stiffer sentence than a local? And in terms of your claim that prosecutors have an air tight case, you've clearly got your facts wrong. The prosecutors in Taiwan are easily influenced by criminal gangs and dodgy police officers. The fact is that the KTV owners are criminals and they are working in collusion with the police at Da An, just look at their track record (sex trade, drug trade and illegal gambling allegations).
May 7, 2011    Julia_c_1977@
The fact is, that Dean is already a previously convicted criminal, in Great Britain and Taiwan, and he tries to lie his way out of this case. Of course he shall be punished very harshly. According to Susan Hawkings, a British female reporter of the Edinborough Journal (Scotland), the complete Pakistani family of Dean, his parents, his brothers and sister, his cousins are well know to the police and the prosecution office of Edinborough for multiple similar crimes like stealing, selling drugs, driving drunken, fraud, attempted rape. Insulting the Christian society in Edinborough with Muslim motivated hatred and violence. I sincerely hope that the judge in charge of this case knows what to do with this guy.....
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