The Pardon Affairs

Whilst the mother of a man killed in a car crash asks for a pardon for the man who caused it, other families are infuriated that drivers who caused the death of their children are still not in prison.

Dealing with the latter first, we go back to 2008 and a car accident near Huétor Santillán to the north east of Granada City. Three passengers were killed, two of them children; on a section of road with a speed limit of 40 kph, where the offending driver was doing 120 when the accident occurred.

The driver who caused the accident was sentenced to over three years in prison, but in prison he is not, because his lawyer obtained a partial pardon in 2013. The parents lodged an appeal against the pardon before the Supreme Court and it was suspended. Technically, you can’t revoke a pardon, however.

It’s a long story, so take the time to read our article from 2013 on the subject.

The condemned driver requested a new pardon, based on a positive report from the provincial courts and so this second pardon request is awaiting review in Madrid.

The parents sent a request to the Minister of Justice politely telling him to get his finger out because the second pardon has been sitting in a filing cabinet somewhere in the legal corridors of the Ministry of Justice for the last three months… and it’s already been four years since the man was originally sentenced to prison.

Now for the mother who wants a pardon for the man who caused a traffic accident that resulted in the death of her son. José García died on the 8th of October, 2011, as a result of an road accident.

His best friend, David Benito, was driving and was under the influence and so was consequently sentenced to two and a half years’ imprisonment.

The victim’s mother, Águeda Sacristán, considers that the accident was the result of bad luck and that the friendship between the two men was reason enough to request a pardon for the driver, who is married with two young children.

The driver doesn’t want to change his guilty verdict but to substitute the punishment because jailing him is not going to help anybody; not his family, nor his best friend’s one either.

So far, the Mayor of the hometown of both men and the victim’s mothers have gathered 211,000 signatures backing their request for a pardon.

And therein lies the difference between Justice and The Law.

(News: Granada, Andalucia)

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