Sometimes celebrities get off easy when they're charged because they're celebrities. Martha Stewart comes to mind. Other times celebrities get penalized for being celebrities because someone wants to make an example out of them. I'm no legal expert but to me it seems like overkill to go after Dany Heatley with charges of vehicular homicide in the first degree, vehicular homicide in the second degree, reckless driving, driving too fast for conditions, and failure to maintain his lane and speeding. If convicted on all counts Heatley could face up to 20 years in prison and $5,000 in fines. The average sentence in Georgia for those charges is 7.4 years according to sportsnet News.
Why does it seem like overkill? Because the victim's family bears no ill will against the defendant and has asked for leniency, therefore it was completely up to the Fulton County DA as to what charges would be pressed. So why is DA Paul Howard throwing the book at Heatley? Well, remeber when Atlanta Falcon Ray Lewis was charged with murder back in 2000? Remember when he pled out to a minor charge and then the DA dropped all other charges because their case was full of holes? That DA's name was Paul Howard, the same guy going after Heatley. You know he had egg on his face when he had to drop the charges in the case against Lewis and didn't come off looking good at all. Guess who's up for re-election on November 2? Nobody is running against him yet but I get the feeling he wants to redeem himself.
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