“It’s horrible for everybody. Yeah, I lost my son, it’s harder on our family, but I don’t want the rest of her life ruined too. It isn’t going to make me feel any better,” he said.
As hard as it is to say something like that… we need more people like this.
It’s a nice sentiment, but…
This was premeditated. She needs to be held accountable and have consequences for what she willfully and knowingly did.
She literally killed people. I’m not sure this can be a case of “forgive and let her off lightly.”
I don’t think he’s saying she shouldn’t be accountable and face consequences. He’s said he didn’t want her to spend life in jail. That’s going to be pretty radical for a lot of folks.
Some people are going to think that life in prison or the death penalty should be the minimum consequence. Others are going to think that even a monster like this can repent, change and (unlike her victims) be allowed to live free eventually.
Edit. Yikes. Important typo. “Don’t”
That’s fair, and I get it. To me, that’s absolutely radical, especially if it was my child who was harmed.
I personally have just learned from experience that people who get off easy are likely to continue on the path of destructive behavior.
I’m not necessarily calling for her death or anything… but the punishment needs to fit the crime. Two lives are permanently gone from this world because of the careless and stupid choices she made.
I personally have just learned from experience that people who get off easy are likely to continue on the path of destructive behavior.
Likewise, although my experience is with a racist idiot on a Discord server who I was far too lenient with.
Oh, absolutely. The internet adds the layer of anonymity, too, so that certainly doesn’t help.
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.
And if that horse is being hateful and violent on top of that, it’s a lost cause.
For me, it’s not about whether or not she can change and repent. I’m all for prison reforms that make prison safe and offer inmates opportunities for growth and self-improvement while they serve their sentences, but I think punishments need to fit crimes and this girl intentionally killed two other people. I think a sentence of 15 years to life is actually a bit lenient (I’m used to 25 years to life being the standard for premeditated murder). I don’t think she should mandatorily have to spend her entire life in prison, but I also don’t think she should get to enjoy even fraction of the life she robbed those two boys of. Ideally, with good behavior, I’d like to see her get out at 45-50 years of age. She would still have a few decades left, but the prime of her life would be gone—no career, no kids. That seems fair to me.
And yet on the same turn, if the father was calling for the death penalty or even a lengthy prison sentence, you all would be admonishing the fact that he even got a say and stating this is why justice systems shouldn’t be about satisfying the victim at all.
The hypocrisy is really blatant and self-serving. Should people be punished for their crimes or not? If yes, then you need to support predetermined sentences for crimes that apply equally across all cases, including this one. If no, then you don’t really believe in justice or government, but something much more insidious.
There’s a middle ground between life in prison and just a slap on the wrist
I agree. 15 years is hardly “life” in prison, though. I think it’s more than fair.
People change. They get better. The guy who shot Reagan got better, and they let him out. Now he writes love songs and posts them on YouTube, and sells his paintings on eBay.
The guy who shot Reagan was already better. /S
Better if he’d hit the goddamn range once or twice…
Being 17, I’d attribute some of the blame to her parents or whomever owns that vehicle.
Is driving recklessly really the only symptom of being this emotionally deregulated? Did they not know how stupid or mentally ill she is?
I bet the adults around her did not care or excused her behaviour.
I bet her dad was a party clown who was hoping this would happen.
Like where the fuck do you get all of these assumptions from?
That’s fine, but she still made a conscious decision to do it. If she was one year older, would that make any kind of difference?
And let me be clear: mental illness can make some behaviors more understandable, but not murder– if the blame is put solely on mental illness, all that does is put more stigma on it. Not every shitty decision people make is because of “mental illness”.
Why only murder? Why not rape or assault or abuse or any number of different crimes deeply mentally ill people commit on the regular that ruin lives far more deeply than the death of a loved one?
You are throwing your galaxy brain logic at grieving people looking for an end to destruction and shaming them about it. Just chill with the reactionary soup. nobody is going to feel empowered to drive into a brick wall because of what they said
I’m not sure you know what the word “reactionary” means if you think that my comments and opinions were “reactionary”.
The family can grieve, and my opinion has no bearing on the outcome of whatever happens. My point was, in the end, no matter what the reason, there needs to be consequences for someone who killed people, regardless of what the grieving parties think. I don’t think that’s particularly radical.
It’s a sad and awful situation al around. I can see why those poor families just want to move on.
Did they not know how stupid or mentally ill she is?
Just want to shout out here as an anxious and depressed person, the vast majority of the mentally ill are not psychopathic murderers. Mental health absolutely pays a role in decision making, but except for super extremely rare cases, it doesn’t turn someone into a murderer.
I witnessed this in a case. Young driver wasn’t paying attention and crossed the line, struck head on and killed an elderly woman on her way to chemotherapy, no joke.
On the recommendation and impassioned pleas of the victim’s family, the defendant plead a manslaughter charge down to a $75 fine for failure to maintain lane or some such infraction. I don’t remember all the facts but was struck by the forward thinking and empathy. The young driver was truly remorseful, part of the pleas were that he had suffered enough, that the memory of what he had done was punishment enough.
That’s a nice story, in a way, but not even remotely close to this case.
I can’t believe I’m being held responsible for my actions!!
If this were a case of a young driver who was driving irresponsibly fast and lost control of the car, killing their friends, that would be one thing. This is a 17 year old who repeatedly threatened her boyfriend with killing him while driving in the weeks before the accident, who made no attempt to avoid/stop ramming at full speed into a large building.
This makes the mothers comments so much worse.
Imagine dying and your mom’s first thought is defending the person who, premeditated, murdered you.
Yeah like, this wasn’t an accident. This was willfully killing someone. If she shot or repeatedly stabbed him, I don’t think you’d see the same sentiment. Something about hitting them with a mass of metal at high speeds is more sympathetic, because death by car strikes us at less violent.
During the investigation, she asked if they could just suspend her license for 10 years
“I just killed two people with a car, so I think being forced to use Uber for a decade is an appropriate sentence.”
It’s a shame she’s not a male athlete with a promising swimming career. Might have gotten off with having to take a remedial driving course and paid a small fine.
Oh! You’re talking about the sexual predator/rapist Brock Turner, who now goes by the name Allen Turner.
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Honestly, if she hadn’t threaded to kill her boyfriend with her car before this happened, then I think suspending her license for a decade or two or may be life would be the right solution. Prison shouldn’t be a punishment, but a way to keep everyone else safe from dangerous people. If she won’t drive, then she isn’t a danger. But it sounds like she’s dangerous no matter what.
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Agreed. I wish the USA had this point of view, but instead we do view it as an oubliette to put people we dont like / are too poor
Yes, but mercy and rehabilitation should not come at the expense of the innocent.
Plus, when I think rehabilitating people in jail, I’m thinking of nonviolent offenses. Premeditated murder isn’t on my list of crimes I think someone can come back from, not when it’s like this.
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The trial featured surveillance video played in court showing the moment Shirilla accelerated towards the building without stopping, until a gut-wrenching crash is heard.
Anyone capable of doing this deserves prison time.
Agreed. We know she did it on purpose and is a dangerous person in general, not just a careless or even reckless driver. She needs to be in prison to keep us safe. Shes different than someone who is merely a bad driver, or even a reckless driver who just needs to be kept out of a car to keep everyone around them safe.
Yeah this is exactly why there’s the option to try a minor as an adult.
Prison shouldn’t be a punishment
Yes, it absolutely should be. I can’t stand people who think the criminal justice system shouldn’t dole out punishments, but should only aim to rehabilitate people. You folks have absolutely no empathy for victims. Punishments are important, because criminals cause suffering to other people. The entire concept of justice is based on the idea that criminals should suffer at least a modicum of the harm they do to others as payment for their crimes. Over the centuries, we have done away with the “eye for an eye” model of punishment and decided that the worst sentences we can hand down are execution and life in prison, and most people today aren’t actually in favor of execution. Spending your life in prison is a slap on the wrist compared to being murdered.
I’m sure this girl could be rehabilitated within a few years. Under your model, she’d walk free while the parents and siblings of her victims were still trying to recover mentally from what she did to their families. Your lack of empathy for them is repugnant. You should feel ashamed.
Uber? Omg that’s horrendous!
Better than a nasty ass public e scooter.
The Ohio teenager dubbed “hell on wheels” — who was convicted of intentionally crashing her car at 100 mph into a building, killing her boyfriend and his friend — was sentenced to two concurrent 15 years to life sentences Monday.
Judge Russo shared blistering remarks and condemned Shirilla’s actions saying: “She had a mission, and she executed it with precision. The mission was death.”
Judge Russo said in handing down her verdict remarks that Shirilla was “literal hell on wheels,” saying she intentionally drove at an hour when not many witnesses would be around, on a path she didn’t routinely use but had visited days before.
Prosecutors argued in the trial that Shirilla had become turbulent and threatening towards her boyfriend and crashed to end their relationship.
Misleading as hell titles for this running around. I thought she was just driving fast based on what I saw in the headlines last week. She totally deserves the murder charges.
I mean, causing a crash and killing someone in the process of speeding is still deserving of a murder sentence.
I believe stateside it’s called ‘manslaughter’ in a case such as that. Manslaughter is “the crime of killing a human being without malice aforethought, or otherwise in circumstances not amounting to murder.” So no, it wouldn’t be deserving of a murder sentence… Edit: Unless the jury or judge deemed it so, of course.
To make matters even more confusing it all depends on state. Most have manslaughter and for a couple it would be 3rd degree murder.
There are judges in North Dakota, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and Texas that would say “well, were they protesting or something?”
Food for thought.
This food is spoiled, throw it out.
Or Portland, even.
I am absolutely floored that she survived too. Was she the only one wearing a seatbelt?
Nah, must be her thick skull
you’d think so, but the real secret: no brain to damage
How is she eligible for release if she’s found guilty of two murders? Or 15 years rather than something like 40? Murder is one of the few things I think should carry a punitive sentence rather than rehab.
Don’t think people can ever change, eh?
A punitive system does not a good society make.
Well said Yoda
Don’t think people can ever change, eh?
In this case, you’re betting future people’s lives on a known murderer changing.
Disclaimer: I’m neither for nor against that.
Yeah, I’d rather a known murder have the opportunity to change and potentially be a better person than to only let them rot in a fucked up punitive system.
A chance to change, sure. But it would be a mistake to pretend it’s not also a chance to kill again. And it turns out people actually can’t change, meaningfully, without remorse for their past deeds— And you can’t ever actually know whether they feel that. Mercy feels very good until you realize ten years later how much pain you could have avoided otherwise.
Also, you’re presenting a false dichotomy between “Set them loose on the world” versus “Isolation and torture for the rest of their life”.
It’s unacceptable to put innocent people at risk in order to give a convicted violent criminal mercy. It’s very easy to say they should be released on good behavior when you live hundreds of miles away. Unless someone is willing to live as that person’s roommate or neighbor, I think it’s completely hypocritical to chastise others for supporting incarceration.
Supporting the current method of incarceration should put you in it. The US should be tried for cruelty and inhumane punishments, per our “justice” system.
It just tells me that said person has no idea how terrible the system is, and that they have zero empathy.
Oh, also: https://mkorostoff.github.io/incarceration-in-real-numbers/
Additionally, from the previous link
Somebody’s damned no matter what. The victim deserves justice. The survivors deserve peace. The perpetrator deserves a chance to do better. And the rest of us deserve safety.
And these things cannot be reconciled. But I’m not willing to just give upon on any of them. So yes, if you could guarantee that it would give us a decent shot at having all of these things, I would be willing and honoured to live as that person’s neighbour or roommate. ..I’ve repeatedly made decisions before in my life that I think prove this, without even realising it. My life is worth less too if theirs is ruined, and I don’t actually innately care about my own safety if I think I can help someone else.
But nobody can currently guarantee that. So, I honestly don’t care anymore. Lock them up for good and throw away the key, or kill the survivors too and then kill me too for good measure; I don’t care. Just don’t make me choose who to damn, because what I want to see is for the victim to be alive, not avenged, and for the criminal to be helped, not brutally crushed— but we can’t have that anyway.
And Ffs, don’t let a known dangerous criminal have the chance to kill again and pretend it’s just mercy or kindness or whatever without a dangerous level of foolishness behind it while condescending at anyone who would want to see a more cautious approach. And don’t pretend that ruining one more life for some perverse ideal of “punishment” or revenge is going to fix anything either.
This is a shitty situation, and we’ve already lost to end up in it. People have already been hurt, and no matter what you choose, more people are probably going to end up being hurt before it’s over. Pretending mercy will magically fix everything is almost just as stupid and evil as pretending “punishment” serves any moral purpose other than cruelty.
…I’d want some kind of mercy for the man or woman who murders me. But it’s not my place to demand it for someone else’s killer, who may well go around being a threat to more and more people.
Giving them a chance to change is very different than granting leniency. She should have a serious opportunity at rehabilitation, but she shouldn’t be free in society unless you’d feel safe leaving her with your loved ones unattended.
We should grant mercy as often as we can, but it can never come at the expense of the innocent. I’d rather let a murderer who has genuinely changed die in prison than release a supposedly changed murderer who kills again. I’m certainly not volunteering to be that person’s neighbor if they’re released on good behavior.
We should grant mercy as often as we can, but it can never come at the expense of the innocent.
You’re presenting a pretty idealized version of our justice system, i think. A big part of why I support leniency is because of how often our justice system gets it wrong. It’s crazy to think that bad luck and low social standing can cost you most of your life. Any punishment meant for violent criminals will inevitably target a substantial number of innocents or nonviolent offenders. It’s wishful thinking to believe our justice system is usually “just”. We should strive to help the victims feel vindicates as much as possible, but it will inevitably, usually come at the expense of the innocent.
I imagine it’s her age. She wasn’t even legally an adult, not that that excuses it. Losing all her 20s and most of her 30s basically means if she does get out at exactly 15 years she’s probably much screwed her whole life even setting aside the felony on her record. Her life will look nothing like she imagined.
That’s even ignoring what being in prison for that long will do to you mentally. From what I’ve heard, it’s almost a whole other world in there.
I can’t imagine getting out after spending 15 years of my life in prison, and being able to keep the same quirks and mannerisms. Everything is just different. It’s tough for fully grown adults to transition through, let alone someone who spent the last half of their teens.
That being said, neither of those two dead people will ever get to see a sunrise again. They’ll never get to feel the wind on their face, or tell their parents that they love them. For what?
Intentionally murdering innocent people is despicable and soulless. I hope that they give her a lot of therapy and mental help in there. What a tragic end for such young lives.
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It has been statistically proven that white women get easier sentences than men of any race. Her age also probably played in to that.
Reminds me of this news story by the Onion. It was ruled that a young white woman would have to stand trial as a black man.
Hey so kind of off topic, but did anyone else read this and think this might be a problem? - “Police arrived to the scene around 45 minutes later.”
By itself? No.
It does not say “Police arrived 45 minutes after it was reported”. From that statement alone we have no idea how long between the crash and someone seeing it and reporting.
Also that’s police, not EMS. I don’t really care if police arrive at all as long as EMS gets there quickly. They can always call for police too.
Was she trying to kill herself too or what? How did she survive when they both died at the scene?
Luck, car engineering, and medical science. She was seriously injured. Was she trying to kill herself, I have no idea. Clearly needs mental health treatment which she’s not likely to get in prison. Not that I think she should be free either.
Seriously glad she is off the streets, that girl is psycho.
Hadn’t heard of this case before but damn, when a judge gives you concurrent cause they think you’re the type of person to get time added onto your sentence is damming af
The sentence was 15 years to life, implying that in order for her to get out she will need to be paroled. She won’t get out automatically. The judge’s statements are on the record now so it is very unlikely, even if she is a model prisoner, that they will grant her parole in 15 years. Probably more like 20-25.
I feel for the father of the boyfriend. While clearly grieving for his son, he made a statement that he didn’t want her in jail for life, because it’s not like it would fix anything.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ohio-teen-100-mph-crash-father-boyfriend-life-prison-rcna100635
I’m torn on that, it comes down to motive. If it was an accident then she shouldn’t be going to jail at all. If it was deliberate as contended - she was charged with murder after all - then it’s shocking and strays into pathological territory - in which case should she ever be released?
I think the father would be right if it had been involuntary manslaughter but to be charged with murder for a car crash is highly unusual. Having said that it’s possible this was an inappropriate charge and judgement and might get overturned on appeal.
Strange case.
Did you read the article? She threatened to do it multiple times on previous days. She then scoped out the site she would do it at before she actually did it. 100% premeditated murder.
Concurrent = at the same time
Consecutive = one after another
Concurrent is almost always the better deal.
Constructive = one after another
I think you mean “consecutive”.
Some great consecutive criticism there.
Yeah, typo, fixed
Indeed. What I intended when I said that was that the judge thought consecutive wouldn’t even be needed because she’s going to be spending way more than 15 in prison.
A dig simular to if a judge only fined someone $1k instead of $10 and saying “you still won’t be able to pay 1k”
I’ve never understood that. How is serving sentences concurrently at all the same punishment? Are there cases where someone has two sentences that can be ruled either to serve consecutively or concurrently? Who makes that decision and what goes into it?
The idea is to make sure that there isn’t an unjust stacking of time due to many little crimes being committed during a larger crime. As an example, let’s say a first time offender breaks into a bank and tries to rob it. If they applied the maximum for each individual crime, it is easy for the punishment to balloon into something that is much worse than the crime itself calls for—trespassing + robbery + destruction of property + whatever else you did = 80+ years for a first time offense.
When the judge chooses to have the sentences run concurrently, the prisoner will serve the longest sentence they have gotten for one of the crimes, but will still have all the crimes on their record. This gives them a greater possibility to be released after a more reasonable amount of time (10-20 years), which gives them a chance of rehabilitation and reduces the burden on the taxpayer to house people for very long amounts of time.
It is worth remembering that some people who commit crimes early in life go on to be productive and admirable citizens. Stephen Fry did time for fraud as a teenager, and then went on to be a beloved actor and writer. Sometimes those skills can be turned around to do good.
Totally deserved. I have been the passenger in a similar situation to this - shit was horrifying. I got 100000000% lucky that I wasn’t injured in the crash.
I wonder what SSRI, SNRI or other psychoactive drugs she was on.
She would have been tested at the hospital and it would have been presented as evidence if any had been found in her bloodstream.
Neither SSRI or SNRI are psychoactive.
What are you talking about, that’s exactly what they are.
Psychoactive drugs are substances that affect the brain. They range from heroin to caffeine. These substances can affect awareness, thoughts, mood, and behavior
What a fucken joke.
I called it last week. She was going to get a (relatively speaking) easy sentence for having murdered 2 people.
If she was a guy, those 15 years would not have been concurrent, that’s for damn sure. But our society puts pussy on a pedestal, so of course she’ll be out by her early 30s, while 2 people died because of her.
Crawl back under the bridge, incel troll.
You know, I thought your comment was unnecessarily harsh, but then I went back to read their’s carefully and holy fuck they’re a textbook definition of an Incel.
