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November 20, 2006
Judge Unwilling to Imprison Aloof Farmers Market Killer George Weller Despite Admitting that he Deserves Jail
The old man hit a Mercedes, steered around it, headed through the Santa Monica Farmer's Market killing ten innocent people, injuring 63, and plowed his way to probation and no jail time.
George Weller didn't go to court to defend himself, he didn't go to court to hear his judgment, and today he didn't go to his sentencing to hear that the judge let him off the hook.
Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson today somehow said that he totally agreed with the jury and then called Weller's actions callous and showed "an enormous indifference to human life," and yet he's just as free to enjoy this beautiful weather today as anyone else in Los Angeles.
Santa Monica has just declared that if you're old and white you can unmercifully kill nearly a dozen people, including children, and get away with murder.
The judge acknowledged that the senior citizen never admitted responsibility, and in a bizarre and surprising twist, the court refused to punish the old man and hold him accountable because "it wouldn't do anyone any good."
"Today, Mr. Weller stands convicted of 10 serious felonies and he is asking for leniency in sentencing," Johnson said. "Yet, he has never once expressed in court any remorse for his actions.LAist has never heard of old age being a free pass out of jail, but we're glad to know that when we become the right age we can floor our Buick through a densely-populated area and get away with it."I will never understand his stubborn and bullheaded refusal to accept responsibility to put this matter to rest for everyone, including himself," Johnson said.
"George Weller clearly deserves a prison sentence. The devastation that he has caused and the indifference that he has displayed support no other conclusion," the judge said.
"The fact that he deserves prison doesn't mean he should get it," the jurist noted. "I believe the courts need to be practical as well as principled and I don't see any purpose in sending Mr. Weller to jail or prison. It wouldn't do anybody any good." - LA Times
We don't have to admit responsibility, we don't have to be sorry, we don't even have to show up to court. We just need to be old and white.
Oh shit, LAist isn't white.
That's OK. We're sure that if George Russell Weller was African-American, or Hispanic, or Middle Eastern, this sentencing would be exactly the same.
AP photo by Ric Francis
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That's a goddamn travesty!
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Traditionally, using "Santa Monica" as you do inferred a certain type of liberalism, rooted in the city's now-eroded rent control policies, it's (relative) attitude towards (welcoming or at least accepting) the homeless and even the relative power of the Green Party in city elections. Despite an evolution in the city, there are still those who carelessly refer to it as the People's Republic of Santa Monica.
But "Santa Monica" had nothing to do with what the Superior Court decided today. Santa Monica is just where the crime was committed and where the case was heard. This judge represents -- for better or worse -- the County of Los Angeles, not the City of Santa Monica.
Santa Monica was devasted by the crimes committed at the Farmer's Market.
Today's ruling was not a declaration by Santa Monica or Santa Monicans about how the old and white are treated and it's a slur on its diverse and open-minded citizenry to suggest anything else.
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If this case were slightly different I would be ok with the no jail thing. I mean he still has probation and he is 90 freakin' years old. But the fact that he: A)Never accepted responsibility for it - B) Never said I'm sorry - C) is obviously an ass - makes me feel like he should be in jail. It seems like a dick move to put a 90 year old in jail but this is a time I could understand I think.
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He got away with it because he killed pedestrians. In America, especially LA, a pedestrian is equivalent to a Jew in Germany, or a homosexual anywhere.
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So retarded!!! What the hell is an older man like him, with health problems, doing behind the wheel anyways? Who was the moron that issued his license at the DMV??! OMFG not fair! Ill or not he needs to be punished for his crime.
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If no jail time how about some compensation to the people effected by his actions. There has to be some consequence to his actions.
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Well at least his healthy surviving family members will get the brunt of the pending lawsuit judgement. I can't imagine any auto insurance policy would cover KILLING 10/INJURING 63 PEOPLE! I figure the suit has got to be asking for at least 50-60 million in damages. I know my insurance company wouldn't pay it....
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LAist seems to not understand the legal system we have in America - appear to prescribe to the retributivist theory, which deems punishment the ultimate end. While punishment would make everyone feel a little better, in this case it would not ultimately help society and the judge thought so. The judge was more utilitarian in that he recognized that putting this man in jail would only drain our precious county resources. This man is old, bedridden, and completely out of it - he would not even realize he was in jail. It's probably too much to have you consider legal theory before posting, but judges are bound to consider more than just anger (as justified as it is) but society as a whole.