A terrible incident happened the night of February 7, 1996. It all began when Thomas M, Nissa B, and Christopher C drank a couple of beers and then decided that it would be fun to pull up about twenty road signs. One stop sign in front of Tom's Café was the scene of it all. That night three eighteen year olds riding in a white Camaro missed the stop sign and smashed into an eight-ton truck loaded with phosphate. This lead to three fatalities which have stirred up quite a controversy in this country. Due to their "mischief", M and his friend had to wait while the jury decided whether the three committed manslaughter or negligent homicide (677)
             According to the law, a "criminal homicide constitutes manslaughter if the actor: (a) recklessly causes the death of another" (682). This means that if a person causes death unintentionally by committing an act that is dangerous and could end up with fatalities, the person has committed manslaughter. On the other hand, "criminal homicide constitutes negligent homicide if the actor, acting with criminal negligence, causes the death of another" (682). In simpler terms, that means that if a person accidentally kills a person by unknowingly committing an act that could end up in possible fatalities, the person is guilty of negligent homicide. The decision between these two very similar acts could have resulted in a minor "slap on the wrist" to many years in prison.
             Basing a case solely on emotions and circumstantial evidence does not serve as proof beyond all reasonable doubt. Therefore it was unjust to convict these three of manslaughter. There were no fingerprints on the stop sign, no witnesses were present at the time the stop sign was pulled, and the defense expert says that the sign was knocked down by a "lateral force." The defendants' testimony states that M, B, and C pulled up each of the road signs (679). In ...