Black While Jaywalking

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Black While Jaywalking

via Joseph P. McClelland, LLC by admin on 10/18/11

Black While Jaywalking is a post from: Atlanta wrongful death law firms motorcycle laws car accidents
UPDATED BELOW:
A new crime is blowing up the press for the last few months: Black While Jaywalking and it's first victim is Racquel Nelson.  Before we talk about the judge's refusal to drop the vehicular homicide charge against a jaywalker, let's address the elephant in the room.
You may have heard the term BWD which means black while driving.  This is used to refer to the crime of being a black man in a car on a road.  Obviously, that is not a crime, but the main reason why The new term BWJ, I just made up because it makes sense.  Why am I talking about this?  As an Atlanta attorney, I have a big set of opinions about the administration of justice in our society.  I spend way too many hours in court watching our society, watching the reactions, watching the attorneys, watching the judges, watching the plea deals and watching it all fall apart.
According the Atlanta Journal Constitution, State Court Judge Katherine Tanksley has refused to dismiss the vehicular homicide charge against Racquel Nelson whose son, A.J. Newman, was killed in April of last year when he yanked his hand from his mom's and ran across the median on Austell Road and got hit by a hit-and-run driver.
Racquel Nelson accepted Judge Tanksley's offer for a retrial in lieu of a year of probation after a jury convicted the 30-year-old single mother on charges of vehicular homicide, reckless conduct and crossing outside a crosswalk.
Do note that Racquel Nelson was given one year of probation and no jail time.  It is important because everyone is throwing around the three year sentence and a one year sentence.  It is highly unlikely that she will receive a higher sentence the second time around.
Her attorney Steve Sadow asked the judge to drop all three charges against Nelson, but Judge Tanksley only dismissed the reckless conduct charge.
Will there may be some hope for Ms. Nelson?  I think yes.  The judge did throw out the reckless conduct charge.  To me, that reckless conduct charge is so broad that it could easily be used to convict her.  On the other hand, the vehicular homicide charge just doesn't seem appropriate.
Generally, we think about homicide you're thinking about someone was actually driving the car.  He caused the death of an individual.  So, in this case it just seems strange to try to utilize that law in order to convict her.  So, the remaining two charges against Racquel Nelson remain since the judge threw out the reckless charge.
We briefly discussed the vehicle are homicide part in that it should be difficult to convict her because she was not driving the car and it seems to be a clear misuse of that statute in order to try convict her on that.  On the other hand, with the crosswalk charge from what we're hearing the media, she was not using the crosswalk.  How many times has every one of us crossed the street not using the crosswalk?
Now, that does not mean that it is smart, but it means that it's something that just happens all the time.  Therefore, trying to convict a woman and mother who lost a child because of her not using the crosswalk is absurd.  It's so absurd that you have to look to the question of why are we even discussing it.
Ms. Nelson's child was hit by a hit-and-run driver who was later caught.  According to reports, the same guy had on two other occasions been the cause of a hit-and-run accident.  He gets six months in jail.  Ms. Nelson faces up to three years in jail when she wasn't driving a car.
Is the smart thing for a mother to cross the street not crosswalk?  No.  Should as a society we want to punish this woman with jail time after she's lost her child?  No.  So what in the world are we doing to this poor lady?  She is being charged with BWJ in my opinion.
Is the speculation?  Of course, it is speculation.  I did not go to the trial.  However, Lewis Grizzard taught me one thing growing up and living in Georgia my entire life has confirmed something about Cobb County:  Cobb County is primarily all white and conservative.
Do I think that Cobb County is completely chock-full of racist?  No, I don't know enough people there to make that call.  However, I do feel pretty certain that Cobb County is fairly xenophobic and I'm willing to debate that.
Let me say something about the State Court Judge Katherine Tanksley in this case.  She is an elected official.  She is an elected official from Cobb County.  I do like the fact that she threw out the reckless conduct charge against Racquel Nelson because I do believe that charge is too easily used to convict innocent people.  Therefore, I hope that she is using the discretion the law gives her to try to maintain not only the appearance, but the actual administration of true justice.
I hope things go well for Ms. Nelson because she must really be suffering from both the loss of her child and the potential loss of for freedom because of another driver.  This case seems like so many instances today in our society where people follow the rules.  So blindly that they show themselves to be worthless, computer-replaceable cogs in the system where they don't understand its function or purpose.
Joseph McClelland is a Georgia native in Atlanta attorney.  His practice consist of personal injury litigation, criminal representation and family law disputes.  Mr. McClelland can be reached at 770-775-0938.  Mr. McClelland represents clients across the state of Georgia.
UPDATE:
I did a quick search for the term jaywalking while black and found out that I did not invent or coin the phrase.  Boo.  I thought I was on to something clever and unique.  Congratulations to the creator of the term before me.  The fight is on!  I will just have to go back to being an Atlanta personal injury attorney and Georgia car accident attorney.

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