1607
submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

A new law in Texas requires convicted drunk drivers to pay child support if they kill a child’s parent or guardian, according to House Bill 393.

The law, which went into effect Friday, says those convicted of intoxication manslaughter must pay restitution. The offender will be expected to make those payments until the child is 18 or until the child graduates from high school, “whichever is later,” the legislation says.

Intoxication manslaughter is defined by state law as a person operating “a motor vehicle in a public place, operates an aircraft, a watercraft, or an amusement ride, or assembles a mobile amusement ride; and is intoxicated and by reason of that intoxication causes the death of another by accident or mistake.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is not a terrible law but maybe we should design our infrastructure such that injuries are rare rather than the "Accidents are common and you have to pay more if some of the people are alive after the accident" model we currently use.

[-] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 1 year ago

It might be a terrible law if it pushes the burden of paying for a child's care onto a person going to prison for a while, coming out in debt and without transportation, while being expected to pay for child support while also paying for their time in prison and having to find work as a felon instead of social security and welfare helping.

Aside from that it also makes no sense. Different punishments for killing different people shouldn't be a thing. This will 100% be a law that makes sure criminals and felons stay felons and continue to go in for profit prisons while the government ducks out of paying welfare and social security. What a farce.

[-] Rambi@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

I don't really care in this case, I mean if you chose to risk other people's lives by drunk driving then who cares if it's difficult to afford. I honestly think drunk driving is way too tolerated. Also it could also be tied to income, so you pay more if you have a higher income.

The only issue I can see with this, is if you have killed someone while drunk driving isn't there going to be a good chance the kid will already have reached adulthood by the time the drunk driver is released? That and this does just seem like a way for the state to avoid financially supporting those families. So for those two reasons the law is flawed I would say

[-] phx@lemmy.world -1 points 1 year ago

It's not a punishment in this case, it's a form of restitution to help provide financial security to families that have lost a caretaker/breadwinner.

[-] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago

If you are having to pay out money to no benefit of your own you can try to spin it any way you want. It's still a punishment.

[-] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago

Restitution is a financial punishment that follows the offender for years and often decades after the fact. Many times offenders on parole or probation are required to remain on probation until restitution is fully repaid, and while on probation/parole it's extremely easy to have your probation/parole revoked (meaning you get sent straight back to prison, often on fresh charges), plus the requirements for the probation & parole can absolutely violate their rights because "it's a privilege to be on probation/parole instead of prison"

This is all not mention the difficulty they have getting work after they leave the prison/jail with a felony conviction. There's a reason so many ex-cons operate businesses, it's because it's often the most viable path to a living income

[-] lntl@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

these crashes are not "accidents" if infrastructure is designed that way. the design/engineering element make these crashes "features" of the design.

[-] crashoverride@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago

You're wrong it's a terrible law, it gets filed under creul and unusual

this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
1607 points (99.1% liked)

News

23311 readers
1129 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS