So many people are furious over the story of Ethan Couch.
Couch, 16, killed four people (three stopped to help the fourth with a flat tire) in Texas back in June while driving at nearly two times the speed limit with three times the legal blood-alcohol level. On top of that, he was hopped up on Valium, and had just stolen beer from a Walmart with his friends.
Couch got off with probation, his defense being that he never faced consequences or the wrath of his parents, because wealthy people don't discipline their children. Psychologist G. Dick Miller was part of the defense, telling the judge the teen suffered from "affluenza." How clever.
Now, Miller regrets it.
Just to be clear, he doesn't regret defending Couch, he simply regrets coming up with the phrase of the moment because "everyone seems to have hooked onto it." During an appearance on Anderson Cooper 360, Miller said that Couch (who had violated his probation), could face up to 10 years behind bars. Cooper's rebuttal was that the very same judge had given a black teen 10 years for accidentally killing someone. Miller's response? It's not about race:
None
Yes, there are black people with money, but if you can't acknowledge that some juries—the ones selected by the court as well as the general public—won't view a black teenager on the hook for murder differently than a white teenager who committed a similar crime, you're delusional.
Maybe Miller should just stop talking. As for Couch, his punishment is a $500,000 vacation where he still won't learn anything.
[via Gawker]
