Money buys justice in Texas

State District judge, Jean Boyd ruled yesterday that a sixteen-year old DUI driver who killed four would get no jail time. Instead, his parent could pay for treatment and he would have a ten-year probation. The Dallas Morning News reports that the treatment may well come in Newport Beach, California at the parents’ expense, reported to be $450,000 a year.

You might remember this case when a psychologist for the defense said that Ethan Couch was suffering from a malady called “affluenza” when his car struck and killed four people on the side of a dark highway. That illness is described as a dysfunctional relationship with family, due to being coddled by wealthy parents to the point of not knowing right from wrong.

The real culprit in this injustice is the judge.  Jean Boyd just a few weeks before sentenced a fourteen-year old black youth to juvenile detention for hitting (one punch according to court records). The punch killed his friend.

The difference in these cases is that Couch had prior DUI run-ins with the law.  He was traveling at 75 MPH in a 40 MPH zone and he took four innocent lives.  And he is from a rich family.  The black youth, on the other hand,  had no priors and his family did not have money.

So it seems, at least on the surface that Judge Boyd was swayed with the glitter of the wealthy.  It is so bad that a recall petition has been started and is winding its way toward Governor Rick Perry.  That would probably do no good, since Boyd represents the very people who placed Perry into power.

I don’t know if there is such a thing as “affulenza” of not.  It sounds specious to me.  But even if there is such, to kill four people and to basically walk away from the crime with little more than a monetary slap on the wrist is a crime in itself. A crime against justice in Texas.