Carlos Martinelly sentenced to 20 years

MoonHowler

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.’ 

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Carlos Martinelly Montano found guilty of felony murder

MoonHowler

I will always be uncomfortable with a murder verdict.  Murder is intentionally killing someone.  Are prosecutors in Virginia ready to charge all drunk drivers who kill someone with murder or was this special charge reserved for Carlos only?  Manslaughter yes, murder no. 

This case is about drunk driving and about being an habitual offender.  It isn’t about illegal immigration.  It was political theater being played out on a stage contrary to the explicit wishes of the Benedictine nuns.  It took tragedy and turned it into political carnage as Corey Stewart appeared again and again on both national and local TV, trumpeting the evils of illegal immigration.  He even had a Rule of Law campaign soliciting money.  The entire affair was unseemly. 

I hope  Stewart is smug and  pleased with himself.  He is who continually waved the bloody shirt and demanded Martinelly’s head on a platter, again, in defiance of the wishes of the Bristow order of nuns whose sisters were victims of this terrible accident. 

Where does this leave us when the next drunk driver isn’t an immigrant? 

Where will this verdict lead us next time?  Beware of unintended consequences.  I expect we have not heard the last of this unusually charged case.

PWC sues feds over deportations

Angelina_Apr

Elena speaks with Channel 7 News:

 

 

According to insidenova.com, the county has filed suit against the federal government. 

Prince William County filed a lawsuit today against the Department of Homeland Security, according to a county press release.

In 2007 the Prince William Board of County Supervisors passed an ordinance that requires county police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they arrest.

If police find that they have arrested someone who is in the country illegally, they turn that person over to the department for deportation.

To date the county has turned over more that  [sic] 4,000 people over to DHS, the release stated.

At issue is the fact that an illegal immigrant who was an habitual offender hit a car carrying 3 elderly nuns.  One nun was killed and the other 2 were seriously injured.  The sisters belong to the Benedictine order and requested at the time of the tragedy that people not use the death of the sister to advance their political viewpoint.  The politicians and anti-immigration crowd of Prince William County have ignored the sisters’ request and have done quite the opposite.

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Nuns Find Room to Forgive–Politicians Ignore Their Request

MoonHowler

There are many reasons why I am not a nun.  The main reason is that forgiveness is not my strong suit. 

In the tragic wake of Sunday’s accident on Bristow Road, where 1 sister was killed and 2 more lie in a hospital bed, barely clinging to life, the sisters of the Benedictine Order magnanimously have requested that their tragedy be viewed in terms of alcoholism and drunk driving rather than used as a platform to rail against illegal immigration. 

Politicians and news stations have flagrantly disregarded the sisters’ request.  Sister Denise and the driver of the other car, Carlos Martinelly, have been plastered all over every TV screen and newspaper since the accident occurred early Sunday morning, as the 3 sisters were driving to Mass. 

The Washington Post has attempted to honor the Order’s request in their front page story today.  They have attached faces to this tragedy.  It is impossible to discuss this accident without the illegal immigrant issue creeping in.

Nuns at Virginia monastery find room to forgive while mourning sister’s death

About 8:30 Monday night, the doorbell rang at St. Benedict Monastery in Prince William County, and Sister Andrea Verchuck, the sub-prioress, rose from her desk to see who was there. On the slate front porch stood a man and a woman

They looked contrite,” said Verchuck, 81, who has lived with other nuns in the wooded monastery for 66 years. The visitors’ hands were at their sides, their eyes cast down, as Verchuck greeted them.

“They said, ‘We’d like to talk with someone about the sister who was killed,’ ” she recalled.

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