Motorcyclist found guilty in trooper's death
Local6 is reporting...
A motorcyclist, whose race with a sports car on Interstate 4 led to a Florida Highway Patrol trooper's fatal crash, was convicted of aggravated manslaughter by a jury on Tuesday.
Donald Williams was also convicted of vehicular homicide and fleeing and eluding a law-enforcement officer in causing the death of 49-year-old Trooper Darryl Haywood on Oct. 2, 2004.
Donald Williams is a bad man he deserves to go to jail for excessive speeding, fleeing law enforcement an a host of other safety related charges. The thing I'm having trouble with is the aggravated manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges. Williams didn't kill Trooper Haywood. He didn't run him off the road. A tire blow out at high speeds caused the trooper's car to crash. How do you hold Williams responsible for the actions of the officer? Trooper Haywood made a conscious decision to pursue the motorcycle in clear violation of his own departments pursuit policy. The only time the FHP can give pursuit is in a case involving a forcible felony. Trooper Haywood made a bad judgment call he put himself and fellow motorist at risk, sadly it cost him his life. The better option was to let a helicopter follow the cyclist. These charges fly in the face of personal responsibility how do you hold one man responsible for the decision and actions of another?
posted by Pat Campbell @ 9:10 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
When the officer decided to take it upon himself to violate department policy and pursue the biker, he took upon himself also the responsibility for his own actions. My condolences to the troopers family and friends, and the community for the loss of a fine officer, but it was his decision that cost him his life, not the biker.
Should the judicial system come down on the biker like a ton of bricks for endangering the public? Damn straight.
We need to do something to straighten out the judicial rulings. Two wrongs don't make a right. The biker was out of control, but didn't cause the officers death. The officer used bad judgment in the persuit. My heart goes out to his family, but in logical thinking, the biker did NOT cause his death.
What happened to ALL PARTIES was a TRAGEDY.
BUT,
It was an ACCIDENT!!!
It was NO CRIME!!!!
This sentence is RIDICULOUS and needs to be appealed and overturned !!!
The trooper's decision to travel at those speeds is what killed him.
NOT the rider.
NOT the tires.
He took an UNECESSARY risk,
and paid with his life.
Luckily he didn't KILL anyone HIMSELF with his reckless decision.
All this for what, a speeding ticket???
How does anyone know if this Porsche existed?
If it existed, how does anyone know they were racing?
How does anyone know if the rider knew the trooper was even there?
Do you know how many sport's cars think they are racing when the motorcyclist doesn't even know the car is there, let alone "racing" them?
Does anyone realize you can hear NOTHING at those speeds with a helmet on and you CANNOT turn your head around with the wind resistence as the "witnesses" claim they saw while the bike was passing them over 100mph.
If you see a rider doing something you don't like,
send him a ticket in the mail.
If you don't get the plate,
and the rider is really reckless,
he will eventually sentence himself to his own punishment. (dead, crippled)
I feel HORRIBLE for the trooper, ESPECIALLY for his family and friends (you),
but a GOOD guy made a BAD decision, and he paid for it.
How can anyone say that the motorcyclist is a "BAD MAN" without meeting him or know what was going through his head that day.
I am willing to bet that he was COMPLETELY UNAWARE that the trooper was travelling on the road behind him.
If you disagree with my strongly held opinion, go to a closed racetrack, put on a fully enclosed helmet,and get a motorcyle up to 100mph and tell me what you are capable of seeing to your left or right, let alone BEHIND you.
Then, tell me what, if ANYTHING, you are able to hear.
I stongly believe that the rider had no idea the trooper was travelling behind him and his charges should be limited to what he is guilty of:
SPEEDING and RECKLESS DRIVING
This conviction NEEDS to be overthrown.
For Speeding: 30 years!!! It is a tragedy that the Officer died regardless of the fact the he was violating his own Departments rules concerning high-speed pursuits (put in place to avoid just this kind of thing). To send another to Prison for 30 years for Speeding is a Travesty of Justice.
The effect of this ruling at the Florida District court is this: Florida law mandates that if (1) you are evading police arrest (requires intent to flee) and (2) in that process of fleeing, a police officer is killed in the pursuit, even if the evaders actions did not directly or intentionally cause the death of the officer, (3) you are guitly of manslaughter and vehicular homicide.
The reason this case should piss you off and every other free loving American is that a black man with no criminal record (goto Flordia Department of Corrections and look it up for yourself) made a decision to race a red porsche on I-4. He made a worse decision not to stop when he was alleged to have intentionally fleed the trooper. Thats it. That is all he did. 30 F'ing years in a shit-hole Florida prision for going to fast on a motorcycle and trying to evade the police. I would love to see the jury instructions on this one. I hope to God that Williams has a great attorney appealling the case. There is a serious Federal constutitional issue here. Flordia has convicted a man of homicide where it was unforeseeable that a trooper would be killed. A tire blow out. A racing motorcycle. Homicide. If this was a white kid from the suburbs, this case would not have the same result.
F Florida. Hill Billy justice at its finest.
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