Quote:
Originally Posted by FRPLG
Money had nothing to do with his plea deal. That is not in any way the criminal justice system works. Civil settlements don't give prospectors leeway to not pursue proper charges. They pled it out because they were unsure if they could get a conviction on the major charges since there was a good chance they couldn't prove the alcohol was a contributing factor. Now I am only speaking from a pure by-the-law standpoint. From a moral standpoint I think DUI ought to carry a mandatory 1 year prison sentence and suspension of license for 5 years, I don't think we take drunk driving nearly serious enough in our society.
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Well I think the state of Florida agrees about the suspension of license thing since his license got a lifetime suspension.
I think this sounds about right. Goodell got to make his point about how serious he takes situations like DUI and manslaughter and Stallworth gets to take an entire season off to reflect before trying to resurrect his career later.
Honestly even though I agree that DUI is bad and needs to be taken seriously I also think Stallworth has been punished enough. He wasn't even the only one at fault here, the guy shouldn't have decided to jaywalk across a major road even though he probably figured it was safe enough to do so.
Stallworth acted appropriately in response to what happened. (Note: I'm not condoning what he did here) He immediately stopped and called police, took immediate responsibility for what he did, reached a settlement with the family so they wouldn't have to bear the weight of the increased financial burden, said and did all the right things including placing himself at the mercy of the court and commissioner, and he also has a lifetime suspension of his drivers license as well as a year long suspension from the NFL. I think all that is sufficent punishment. What else could he have done to right the terrible wrong that he did? He did what Vick should've done after getting arrested and that's ultimately why he got a lighter sentence than Vick. If Vick had just come clean from the start he wouldn't have spent two years in prison.