Argumentative Essay: The Case Of Ethan Couch

In the media it is not uncommon to hear stories about celebrities and the uber-wealthy being acquitted of crimes that the common person would be convicted of. For instance, last year Caitlyn Jenner rear-ended a woman after speeding on a rain-slicked highway. The woman died in the fatal crash, and charges of vehicular manslaughter were brought up against Caitlyn, yet the Los Angeles District Attorney dismissed the charges. Ethan Couch’s case is similar except it easier to place blame on the teen as his blood alcohol level was measured at three times to legal limit while he was speeding, the crash resulting in the the deaths of four pedestrians and brain damage to his friend. Despite pleading guilty to four counts of manslaughter, the judge accepted

While the parents are largely to blame for the sheer lack of morality their son has, Couch should have still been able to pick up on the concept of right and wrong from external sources, like school. Also, Couch was old enough to take responsibility for his actions and act on his own, rather than blindly doing what his parents tell him. It is inadmissible to make the claim that Couch could have honestly thought it was okay to drink and drive based on the fact that his parents allowed him to drink at age 13. Many parents are lax about alcohol with their children, but those same kids still know enough not to drink and drive, or steal even like his earlier crime. The judge’s decision is a poor one, even thought Couch still received 10 years of probation, it still isn’t enough. Having plead guilty on four counts of manslaughter, Couch should have been charged with the four counts accordingly and made to serve his time in prison. Just based on Couch’s actions pleading “affluenza”, it is clear that he is hasn’t learned his lesson a does not take the crime committed against the four pedestrians and his friend seriously. Now that he has violated his probation, it is clear that the judge should have sentence Couch to jail time, so he could seriously take time to learn right from wrong away from the lavish life