Georgia: Mother Gets Retrial in Jaywalking Death

Even though it will expose her to the possibility of serving jail time, a Georgia mother has opted for an offer of a retrial of her earlier conviction for vehicular homicide.

In a case that seems like something out of George Orwell or Franz Kafka, Georgia mother Raquel Nelson was convicted of vehicular homicide in the death of her 4 year old son...even though she wasn't driving a vehicle.

There are many questions about this case that even a casual observer of our legal system would be curious to know the answers to. For example:

1) What is the name of the prosecutor who decided to charge a pedestrian - whose child was hit and killed by a car - with vehicular homicide?

2) Where did he or she attend law school?

3) Did he or she really pass the bar exam?

4) Does the prosecutor in question have a history of drug abuse or mental illness?

Someone who is not a prosecutor in Georgia might be tempted to think that Ms. Nelson's grief and despair and - no doubt - guilt at the momentary lapse of attention that may have contributed to the death of her 4-year old son might be sufficient punishment in and of itself. But in Georgia, apparently, the death of a child is insufficient punishment for jaywalking. Jail time is also necessary, lest there be any ambiguity at all about who is at fault when a child is killed on one of our crazy high speed roads.