Ethan Couch is famed for having caused the death of four people as well as injuring eleven others as a result of drunk driving in June 2013. More so Ethan made headlines as his actions were justified in what his attorneys referred to as ‘affluenza’ (20 20 on ID, 2016). According to these attorneys, Couch felt that he could get away with any crime due to his wealthy background and upbringing. The presiding judge Jean Hudson Boyd however sentenced Couch to 10 years in probation sparking a public uproar and debates. However, Couch and his family failed to honor this punishment and instead run off to Mexico prompting the security organs to conduct a manhunt. Eventually, the law enforcement agencies caught up with him in December 2015 and were sentenced to two years in prison. This punishment was viewed by many as being lenient compared to the crimes he had committed.
Leniency in Ethan's Couch Adult Sentence
Ethan Couch was sentenced to ten years in probation with no jail term while he was 16years. However, he did not honor his probation as he ran off to Mexico with his parents forcing authorities to conduct a manhunt for him. When he was caught up with as an adult, he was sentenced to two years in prison. Most people have challenged this sentence as it is deemed as too light and lenient compared to the crimes he had committed. Having killed four people and injuring nine others in the process is not an easy crime. Additionally, Couch failed to honor his probation which shows that he was not sorry for the crime he had committed. On the contrary, he felt that he could get away with the crimes as he was affluent enough to face the consequences.
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As such I concur that giving him only two years jail term is very lenient of the judicial system. More so the critics of the legal system feel that the initial decision to award him ten years probation did not include all the criminal counts (20 2, 2016). The prosecutors at Tarrant County were seeking for at least 20 years in prison for the two counts of intoxication assault and four counts of intoxication manslaughter. The critics cite a similar case where a 16-year-old teenager Eric Miller had been given 20 years sentence for killing one person on drunk driving. It is not yet sure if he got such a hefty sentence because he came from a poor background as compared to Ethan who came from an affluent family. As such it was only right and just to give a similar sentence to Ethan Couch who had, in fact, killed four people and injuring 11 others.
What if Ethan had been Tried as a Juvenile
The American juvenile justice system is there to try juvenile delinquents and offer rehabilitative services to help them become responsible members of the society. Ethan Couch should have been tried in this system as it would have given a better and worth sentencing going by the sanctions in this system. These sanctions according to Forst & Blomquist (2012), are accountability-based which involve treatment, incentives, and services meant to help offenders to change. If Ethan had been tried as a juvenile, then he would have gone to a publicly supported juvenile justice system where he would learn the consequences of his behavior. Youth incarceration would have come in handy to help deter such criminal tendencies in the future.Taking him instead to a luxurious rehabilitation center would instead reinforce his delinquent behavior. Ethan Couch would then feel rewarded for engaging in the criminal act instead of getting punished. A juvenile justice system would deter him from engaging in criminal acts as the sanctions he would get would be discouraging. Here he would learn it the hard way that crime does not pay and that affluence should not be an excuse to engage in misconduct. Trying him as a juvenile could also have prevented him from violating his probation which makes the victims feel that they were denied justice.
References
20 20 on ID. (2016). Case of affluence ethan couch a drunk teen causes fatal car accident leaves 4 people dead. Retrieved on 18 January 2018 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IVfXemF2ws.
Forst, M. L. & Blomquist, M. (2012). Cracking down on juveniles: The changing ideology of youth corrections. Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy, 5(5), 323-375.
