He Should Have Been Sent To Jail

If he were driving a car, he would be facing serious prison time, but because he is a bike rider, he is going to get probation.
From the San Fran Chronicle:
The family of a man killed when a bicyclist slammed into him in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood last year didn't want the rider to spend time behind bars, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Chris Bucchere, 37, avoided jail time when he agreed Thursday to plead guilty to felony vehicular manslaughter for having killed 71-year-old Sutchi Hui as he walked through a crosswalk at Market and Castro streets on March 29, 2012.
Bucchere is scheduled to be sentenced to three years of probation on Aug. 16. His attorney did not return a telephone message.
District Attorney George Gascón said the conviction was the most serious obtained against a bike rider in a fatal accident across the country. San Francisco prosecutors charged another bicyclist who killed a pedestrian with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in 2011.
Gascón cited Bucchere's "egregious" behavior. However, he said, Hui's son "has made it very clear he did not believe sending Mr. Bucchere (to jail) would do anything for the community."  http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Family-of-bicyclist-s-victim-didn-t-want-jail-time-4682335.php
Actually, by sending him to prison, he would no longer be a danger to the community.
Bucchere, who had been scheduled to go to trial in October, rode through stop lights before the crash and was speeding when he hit Hui, prosecutors said. They accused him of running the final red light at Market and Castro, though his attorney said the light was still yellow when Bucchere entered the intersection.
Bucchere wrote about the accident on an online cycling forum before Hui died of his injuries four days after the crash. He wrote he was "way too committed to stop" and "laid it down and just plowed through the crowded crosswalk in the least-populated place I could find."
Prosecutors sought a felony charge to "send a very clear message" to cyclists about the rules of the road, Gascón said.
"Having a felony conviction was important to us," Gascón said. "We would have gone to trial if they had not agreed to a felony conviction."
What good is a felony conviction if you are going to treat it lightly and then have it moved down to a misdemeanor in 6 months, like they plan on doing.  He is also going to be able to still ride a bike and possibly harm someone else.
But, since he is a bike rider in liberal San Francisco, he is going to get a slap on the wrist for killing a man who had a family.
How pathetic.