Back in August 2012 Marvin Wilson was executed in Texas for murdering a single person. He had an IQ below the legal level of metal retardation, so it is arguable that he could not form the 'intent' that is generally considered a necessity for murder. The prosecution said Wilson was the mastermind of drug ring. His accomplice, Terry Lewis, was given life in prison.
Compare this to < href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/12/12/ethan_couch_affluenza_texas_teen_spared_prison_time_in_deadly_drunk_driving.html?wpisrc=burger_bar">Ethan Couch who is responsible for killing four people and injuring 11 others. He was previously found at 15 with a passed out naked fourteen year old girl and the police simply gave him a ticket. In this incident, at 16, he was drunk, with a blood alcohol level of 0.24, and high on Valium.
His punishment for getting drunk illegally, driving a car illegally, and killing four people? Ten years probation, and rehab at a half million dollar in patient facility.
Oh yeah, this is a rich white kid with rich parents. His defense is that he a rich kid who parents never disciplined him. Given that the cops found him with a naked passed out underage girl. Now, it is an affirmative defense that he was not three years older than her, but that assumes there was no duress, which if the girl is passed out one has to question. Yet he apparently received a ticket and was told to go on his way.
So, he received probation. Why this light sentence? Because he was rich, never was taught right from wrong, so could not make the common sense decision not to get drunk, not to drive at almost twice the posted speed limit, and not to kill other.
Now we could just attribute this to the fact that death penalty is overwhelming given to minorities, and one has to do something truly gruesome to receive it if you are white. But I think that is missing the point. This is representative of a fundamental divide between rich and poor. Like the fact that crack is still punished much greater than cocaine. Or that the Bush girls, who were guilty of identity theft an attempting to buy alcohol at 19, were given a slap on the wrist. The driver license, which all alcohol establishment warns kids will be suspended, by all reports was not.
What we have here is a situation where people of certain social standing, or people of certain races, will do whatever is needed to defend their right to kill other people. We see this in Treyvon Martin case where George Zimmerman was set free because some people consider it their right to carry loaded weopons a look for opportunities to kill other people. What would happen in a person was actually convicted of murder for killing a single black boy? Chaos would ensure. Rich people would be put in jail left and right. Likewise, what would happen if a rich boy were to be put in jail for killing a commoner. Parent's would not be able to sleep at night thinking that their privileged kid live might be ruined because the totally by accident killed a family of four.