How In The World Does This Make Sense?

I don't think Donte Stallworth is a bad guy. I never have, and I was sad to hear about the DUI manslaughter charges that he was facing in Florida. However, our friend Jarrett sent me this link today, and I became angry. Stallworth was facing up to 15 years of prison for killing a 59 year old man, but he has avoided any sort of career threatening or life ruining prison time by reaching a financial settlement.

I'm not upset that Stallworth's life and career haven't been derailed, and I'm not looking for any sort of retribution in this case. I hate to see bad things happen to anybody. However, I can't help but become outraged when I read stories like this , and then think about the way Michael Vick has been publicly treated.

Do we, as a society, really place less value on human life than we do on the life of dogs? Leonard Little killed a woman in 1998 because he got behind the wheel of a car drunk and drove recklessly. For this, he received a slap on the wrist, similar to Stallworth. I brought this point up on this site when the Vick allegations first came up. Now, many have stated that Little's situation was different (and they have said the same for Stallworth) because it was unintentional. First of all, he was arrested again in 2004 for driving drunk. He wasn't convicted of the DUI (despite smelling like alcohol and failing three field sobriety tests), but was found guilty on the speeding charge, which should not be taken lightly when you've already claimed one life. Secondly, you don't get a pass for carelessly ending someone's life because you didn't mean to. It just doesn't work that way.

Again, I'm not saying I wish Leonard Little or Donte Stallworth were wasting away in a prison right now. I don't wish that on anybody. However, Michael Vick spent almost two years in federal prison for providing the money and property for people to run a dogfighting ring. At the end of the day, I feel that it is a much greater crime to take a person's life. My biggest problem with all of this is that I feel the vast difference between the way Vick has had to suffer and the way Little and Stallworth has is completely related to the way the public has reacted to these crimes. It's scary to see the legal system work that way. But, what really puzzles me is why people will devote their lives to destroying another man because they are so opposed to dog fighting, and yet nobody seems to care one bit about people killing other humans. Very strange.