By Scott North
Herald Writer
Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Krider said viewing a memorial for a 16-year-old Lake Stevens girl killed in an April 27 car crash in Edmonds convinced him stiffer punishment is needed for drivers who recklessly end others’ lives.
Krider said he saw the memorial for Georgia Pemberton during a visit to Lake Stevens High School. The prosecutor said he was struck by messages that the popular teen’s life was cut short in a prom-night crash because God must have needed another angel.
"It gave me a personal effect and got me thinking about my own children and grandchildren," Krider said Tuesday.
He’s now vowing to push the Legislature to increase penalties for vehicular homicide.
The man charged with Pemberton’s death, Allison L. Arnold Jr., 33, of Bellevue pleaded innocent Tuesday. Prosecutors allege he crashed head-on into Pemberton’s car while trying to pass another driver in a deadly display of road rage.
If convicted as charged, Arnold can anticipate a sentence of a little more than two years behind bars.
Krider said that’s inadequate. Drunken or sober, people who take lives by operating a motor vehicle with "total disregard" for others must be punished with the same vigor as those who kill with a firearm, the prosecutor said.
"We don’t let them off," he said of people who kill with guns. "This is just a much bigger gun."
In a prepared statement released Friday, Krider, who was first elected prosecutor in 1994, said one of the hardest parts of dealing with vehicular homicide is explaining to victims that state sentencing guidelines mandate limited punishment.
Krider acknowledged Tuesday that he hasn’t made a practice of personally meeting with the families of vehicular homicide victims, nor has he attended sentencings for offenders.
Between 1995 and 2000, roughly 30 vehicular homicide cases were reported to the state Sentencing Guidelines Commission from Snohomish County. The average sentence was roughly three years. The longest punishment, nine years, was for a driver who in 1999 took the life of a 67-year-old great-grandmother from Lynnwood. He had a long-term history of drunken driving and had a blood-alcohol level more than double the legal limit at the time of the fatal crash.
The longest sentence in the state for a fatal car crash appears to be from Spokane, where in 1996 prosecutors opted to bring first-degree murder charges against an angry, drunken man who killed two when he deliberately ignored a stop light and plowed into other motorists.
Prosecutors in Spokane filed murder charges because they believed James Barstad’s actions demonstrated extreme indifference to human life. That is the same legal theory Snohomish County prosecutors used last year to win a double-murder conviction against Dennis Cramm, an Everett teen who admitted repeatedly firing a military-style rifle into a car in May 2000.
Cramm is now appealing a 60-year sentence. Barstad’s conviction and 50-year sentence were upheld early this year by the state Supreme Court.
Krider said he was unaware of the Barstad case, but after hearing about it from a reporter, he said he planned to talk with deputy prosecutors handling Arnold’s case to see if a similar extreme indifference theory could support a murder charge.
Krider’s interest in vehicular homicide punishment appears to be recent, said Jenny Weiland, a victim advocate with Everett-based Families and Friends of Violent Crime Victims.
Victims’ groups have unsuccessfully tried for two years to convince legislators to increase punishments for drivers who kill, asking that they be treated no different than people convicted of first-degree manslaughter.
"Never once have I seen Prosecutor Krider appear at one of the hearings to testify," Weiland said.
Krider, a Republican, is facing a stiff re-election challenge from Janice Ellis, a Democrat who is a former deputy prosecutor and state attorney general. Ellis said she is a strong supporter of stiffer punishment for vehicular homicide and plans to push for changes in the law if elected.
"I think the elected prosecutor has an opportunity, and therefore an obligation, to be advocating for advancement in the criminal justice arena," she said.
You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431 or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
