Mom gets choice in hit-run case: New trial or probation

[The Straight Story]

Mom gets choice in hit-run case: New trial or probation

A Cobb County mother who was convicted on three charges after her 4-year-old son was killed by a hit-and-run driver has been given a choice by the judge: 12 months' probation or a new trial.

The judge's unusual decision was announced at a sentencing hearing Tuesday in Cobb County State Court.

...

Judge Katherine Tanksley sentenced Nelson to 12 months probation for the first two counts and 12 months probation for the third count, to be served concurrently. Tanksley also suspended $1,000 fines that could be sentenced for each misdemeanor count.

Nelson, 30, was convicted earlier this month of homicide by vehicle in the second degree, crossing roadway elsewhere than at crosswalk and reckless conduct in the April 10, 2010 incident where she and her three children were trying to cross four-lane Austell Road to their apartment after getting off a Cobb Community Transit bus.

http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/mom-gets-choice-in-1042791.html

[Mz Pip]

1. She has suffered enough

How is putting her in prison going to be of any value to society at all? This is such a tragedy.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

2. I agree. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Man who hit the kid was "drinking a little" and hit and run, got 6 mos. in jail, 5 yr. probation.

" Jerry L. Guy, the driver who admitted hitting the child when pleading guilty to hit-and-run, served a six-month sentence. He was released in October and will serve the remainder of a five-year sentence on probation.

Guy said he had been drinking “a little” on the day of the accident.
But Nelson is facing an even stiffer sentence than the one handed down to her son’s killer.
This, despite the fact that the driver fled the scene after running over Nelson’s son and leaving him for dead."

Picture of Guy and more info in the news article:
http://sandrarose.com/2011/07/mom-whose-son-killed-by-hit-run-driver-is-convicted-of-jaywalking/