HOW CAN THIS REALLY BE JUSTICE? (part two)

I had no idea when I did part one that there was going to be a part two, and certainly not so quickly. From the Houston Chronicle:

Bus driver who hit girl on bike up for murder

Diepraam said he chose to seek a murder charge and not just the criminal negligent homicide because the law provides extra protection for children.

"The conduct in this case was pretty egregious in my opinion," he said. "Number one, he was a school bus driver. He has all that extra training. They have giant doors on the right-hand side of the bus. He should have seen her. They have mirrors on the front of the bus and basically there is no blind spot."

Following the accident, however, Houston police investigator M.W. Gartman told the Houston Chronicle that Cook had a "limited vision. He would have had to see her through the windows in his door. He probably never realized she was there until he heard the bike under the bus."

Cook's attorney Robert Fickman said his client would plead not guilty at the time of trial.

"We simply believe it was a tragic accident," Fickman said.

Click here for the rest.

What's going on in the prosecutor's office? Why are they so quick to describe accident fatalities as murders? Last time, the driver had a history of juvenile delinquency, so there didn't seem to be much public sympathy for the accused, who ended up being convicted. This time, however, the driver has no record to muddy up the situation. This murder charge seems so outrageous, in fact, that the Houston Chronicle editorial board had to weigh in:

Charging school bus driver with murder in
fatal accident invites miscarriage of justice

Perhaps Cook could have and should have seen the child. The accident scene was near the school, and he should have been on the lookout for the many children converging on the campus. However, falsely charging a man with murder when the homicide was accidental protects neither children nor society. All it does is bring the prosecution and therefore the criminal justice system into ill repute.

Barring a plea bargain, a jury will decide whether Cook is guilty of murder, or of a second charge, negligent homicide. The public need not wait before concluding that the prosecution is guilty of trying to perpetrate a miscarriage of justice.

Click here for more.

Again, I must ask this question: what, exactly, constitutes murder? I think it's pretty obvious that all homicides are not murder. Some are justifiable. Some are unpreventable accidents; some are preventable. Some homicides are, indeed, straight-up murder. But what is is that makes these situations different? Why is a traffic fatality sometimes murder and sometimes not? I think this second instance of overzealous prosecution for auto death in Houston makes it clear that the prosecutor's office is more concerned with getting big time convictions, that is, a high prosecutorial "body count," and less concerned with justice. That's not surprising: Houston is, after all, the "death penalty capitol of the world," and therefore pretty nutty.

This is not at all good.

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