Carlos Martinelly Sentenced to 20 Years in Car Crash That Killed Nun: MyFoxDC.com
Carlos Martinelly was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his drunk driving accident (August 1, 2010) that injured 2 nuns and killed a third. Martinelly was also charged with felony murder.
Wikipedia defines ‘felony murder’ as follows:
The rule of felony murder is a legal doctrine in some common law jurisdictions that broadens the crime of murder in two ways. First, when an offender kills accidentally or without specific intent to kill in the course of an applicable felony, what might have been manslaughter is escalated to murder. Second, it makes any participant in such a felony criminally liable for any deaths that occur during or in furtherance of that felony. While there is some debate about the original scope of the rule, modern interpretations typically require that the felony be an inherently dangerous one, or one committed in an obviously dangerous manner. For this reason, the felony murder rule is often justified by its supporters as a means of deterring dangerous felonies.
I keep thinking about this case being Corey Stewart’s launch pad into state politics. For over a year we have heard about this case, day after day. This case has been all over Fox News time after time, as some sort of landmark illegal immigrant case rather than a drunk driving case. Martinelly was brought here illegally as a child. He had a green card. He just didn’t have legal status. He became the ‘nun killer.’
