So the verdict is in for the woman who killed Silkworm drummer Michael Dahlquist, John Glick, and Doug Meis by smashing into their car at 87 mph while they were stopped at light. She was, to remind you of that awful day, attempting to commit suicide after an argument with her mother.
She got eight years.
She'll be out in four if she behaves herself inside. She'll be 29 then, younger than the three men she killed were when they died.
Eight years.
It hardly seems fair, but nothing ever does when lives are taken away. Mostly it feels numbing, trying to find logic in a math that makes lives worth so little. You fumble for an answer and, like attempting to open a lock with heavy mittens on, all the effort is for naught.
Eight years.
Silkworm's Tim Midgett, who testified at the trial, puts it in painful, but truthful, perspective on the Electrical Audio boards:
It is very fucked up, but to state the obvious, the fairness of the situation went out the window the moment she killed our friends.
The judge was hamstrung the moment he decided she wasn't guilty of 1st degree murder. In essence, he had to choose between life in prison or what she got today.
If he's right, and she is not a threat to society from here on out, then whatever. Good for her for avoiding life in prison. If she's not going to do anything remotely like this again, then it's not going to make our lives any better if she stays in there and rots.
I just hope he's right. I hope she doesn't hurt anybody else. I would not bet against this happening, myself.
Which is why I wish she'd been put away, as a friend put it, 'past her partying years.' As it is, she'll have plenty of time to drink/drug/drive in the future. Or not. Crossing one's fingers on this one doesn't feel like enough, but that is what civilized people are left to do.
Eight years.
292,000 days (146,000 for good behavior)