So that's the going price for taking an innocent life?
$500 and a year's probation?
In January, Rodrigo Diaz, his girlfriend and two others pulled into a Gwinnett driveway to pick up a friend to go skating. Unknown to them, it turned out to be the wrong driveway, the driveway of Phillip Sailors.
Sailors came out of his home armed with a .22 pistol. He fired a warning shot, and then, as Diaz tried frantically to drive away, Sailors fired the next shot into Diaz's head, killing the 22-year-old Georgia Tech student who had immigrated here from Colombia.
When Lilburn police officers arrived, they arrested Diaz' girlfriend and the other two survivors in the car, handcuffed them and held them overnight.
On Monday, the case was resolved when the 70-year-old Sailors pleaded guilty to the much lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter. As part of the plea deal cut by Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter, Sailors was charged a $500 fine and given a year's probation, an outcome that the Diaz family supported.
"There is no point for him to be in lifetime in prison," Diaz' brother David said . "What we get from that? Nothing. Like my dad said, we don't hold any grudge." (The Diaz family had earlier negotiated a settlement in civil case filed against Sailors and his insurance company.)
I admire the forgiveness demonstrated by the Diaz family, but I cannot say that I entirely share it. As David Diaz noted, putting an elderly Vietnam veteran such as Sailors into prison for the rest of his life does no one any good, but a small fine and probation sends a dangerous message of its own. It minimizes the gravity of what occurred and contributes to the sense that Sailors did nothing all that wrong, and that others in similar situation can act in a similar manner.
I'm sorry: You do not have the right to shoot someone who pulls into your driveway by mistake. If you pull a gun on someone and use it in a recklessly fatal manner, shooting and killing an innocent person as they attempt to flee your property, as the police reports allege Sailors did, you should not get off pretty much scot-free. Using a gun on someone is serious, serious business.
Furthermore, your own misguided fear is no justification and no excuse for ending the life of another human being. As an adult, you are responsible for how you handle that fear and how you act upon it. When you choose to pick up a firearm, you become responsible for the consequences, and when you make a series of conscious decisions that end with you taking the life of an innocent person, you should face the consequences.
For the mistake of pulling into the wrong driveway, Rodrigo Diaz paid with his life. For the mistake of shooting Diaz and taking his life, Phillip Sailors paid a $500 fine.
That's not justice.
UPDATE: As someone pointed out to me, the $500 fine assessed against Sailors here in Georgia stands in stark contrast to the outcome of a recent case in Michigan. In that tragedy, a drunken 19-year-old girl got in a late-night car wreck and started banging on a nearby door seeking help. The homeowner shot and killed her through the door.
Fifty-five-year-old Theodore Wafer was found guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter and sentenced to a minimum of 17 years. "From my fear, I caused the loss of a life that was too young to leave this world," Wafer told the court at his sentencing. "And for that, I carry that guilt and sorrow forever."
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