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Bicyclists & Felony Vehicular Manslaughter in San Francisco

Posted by Seth Chazin | Jul 25, 2013 | 0 Comments

Vehicular Manslaughter: Bicyclists and Pedestrians

Just the other day, in a case of seeming first impression in California, a bicyclist in San Francisco plead guilty to felony vehicular manslaughter (Penal Code section 190.5 (a)) for fatally colliding his bicycle into a 71-year-old man who was walking down the sidewalk in the Castro.  It was alleged that the defendant ran a red light and struck the victim who was walking with his wife.

While the defendant will not have to serve any jail or prison time, he will have a serious felony on his record and will be on probation and have to complete 1000 hours of community service once he is sentenced next month in San Francisco Superior Court.  It was also alleged by a witness that the defendant had ran several other red lights soon before he struck the victim.  The defendant claimed the light was yellow when he entered the intersection while footage from the cameras that were located at the intersection proved inconclusive.

This sentence is harsher than a defendant in a recent similar case in which a pedestrian was killed when the defendant plowed his bicycle in to the victim.  In that case, the defendant was only convicted of a misdemeanor and was sentenced to only half as many community service hours.

Vehicular manslaughter cases, while always packed with emotion, are often defensible cases as it can be very difficult to prove that the defendant was grossly negligent or violated some law which resulted in the death of the victim.  It is essential to have an excellent investigator, accident re-constructionist or other appropriate experts on the legal team.  I have had particularly good success with these cases employing this strategy.

About the Author

Seth Chazin

Seth P. Chazin has aggressively defended clients in thousands of felony and misdemeanor cases for over 30 years. He has extensive experience representing criminal defendants in federal and state court, while handling both state and federal appeals as well.

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ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

“The death penalty is a lie, a misguided mistake born of anger and frustration. Capital punishment has become a perverse monument to inequality, to how some lives matter and others do not. It is a violent example of how we protect and value the rich and abandon and devalue the poor. The death penalty is a grim, disturbing shadow formed by the legacy of racial apartheid and bias against the poor that condemns the disfavored among us, but corrupts us all. It’s the perverse symbol elected officials use to strengthen their ‘tough on crime’ reputations and distract us from confronting the causes of violence. It is finally the enemy of grace, redemption and all of us who recognize that each person is more than their worse act.”
- Bryan Stevenson

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