I'm relieved that the three day-care workers originally charged with first-degree murder in the hyperthermia death of Amber Cody-Cox received lesser sentences.
It is with great interest, however, that I watch the case of Stephen McKim, a 25-year-old youth minister whose 7-month old daughter died after he left her in the car in his rush to get to work.
The difference in these two cases should not be an issue, but they are. The three people convicted Thursday for the death of Amber are black day care workers and McKim is a white youth minister from Bartlett.
According to the Commercial Appeal, Dist. Atty. Gen. Bill Gibbons was disappointed with the lesser verdicts. He was quoted as saying it sent the wrong message to the day care community.
For those that would argue that the case of the day care workers is slightly different from that of McKim, then consider Charles Williams.
Williams was charged with felony child abuse, a class A felony that can carry 13.5 years to life if convicted, when his car was stolen after he left it running at a North Memphis store with his child inside. Thankfully, his child was still alive when the car was recovered.
The act of leaving children unattended in cars is responsible for dozens of deaths each year, and while they shouldn't go unpunished - whether it's day care workers, bus drivers, or the parents themselves - draconian sentences are not going to correct the issue.
What serves no one, though, is unfair sentencing due to race, class or occupation. If McKim is not charged with first-degree murder or, at least, felony child abuse, then I fear Memphis has far greater problems then dead children in overheated cars.
I have pretty good idea that if a guy like me that sleeps late on Sunday morning were to leave my nephew in the car to die of dehydration, local columnists wouldn't write about how I already had enough punishment. It's ridiculous that we even have to consider these options in the 21st century, and it only shows that there is still a lot of work to be done.
