The mobilization around the truck driver sentenced to 110 years in prison for unintentionally killing four people on the road ended up paying off: his sentence was reduced to 10 years Thursday by the governor of Colorado, Jared Polis. More than 5 million people, including reality star Kim Kardashian, have asked for leniency in an online petition for Rogel Aguilera Mederos, a 26-year-old Cuban immigrant.
The duration of this sentence “Is simply not commensurate with your actions, nor with the penalties imposed on others for similar crimes”, underlined the governor in a letter to the condemned. “There is an urgent need to remedy this unjust sentence and to restore confidence in the regularity and fairness of our criminal justice system. Therefore I have decided to commute your sentence now ”, he added.
Crazy race
Rogel Aguilera Mederos was driving on a highway in April 2019 when his brakes failed on a descent. In its mad rush, his truck had caused a pile-up, killing four people and injuring six. The judges had reproached him for not having diverted his semi-trailer on the emergency lane. The truck driver will only be able to apply for parole in December 2026.
The pardons granted by the democratic and progressive governor of Colorado paint an edifying picture of the functioning of the judicial institution in this state where the fusion of several sentences pronounced for the same offense does not exist. What gives the gruesque additions of years in prison.
Jared Polis thus commuted the sentences of two other inmates who did not have blood on their hands. Ronald Johnson was sentenced in 1999 to 96 years in prison for theft, drug possession and forgery of documents. After 21 years of imprisonment, he will be able to ask for his parole on January 15. Nicholas Wells was for his part sentenced to 48 years in 2011 for car theft, burglary and possession of false documents. He too will be eligible for conditional release on January 15.
A strong supporter of decriminalization, the governor has also decided to erase from the criminal records of 1,351 users their convictions for possession of marijuana, provided they have detained less than 2 ounces (56.70 grams) of smoking weed. . This is the maximum allowed in Colorado for people over 21, by a law passed in May.
Lethal injection
The favorable outcome in the case of the Cuban driver reveals the role of sounding board acquired by the Change.org platform, where Internet users can launch petitions on any subject. In France, it is a text proposed in May 2018 by Priscillia Ludosky, approved more than a million times, which launched the movement of yellow vests. In the United States, the petition demanding justice after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, holds the world record of signatures: more than 19 million. She undoubtedly contributed to the indictment of police officer Derek Chauvin.
In 2021, three petitions launched in the United States exceeded 5 million signatories, including that of Rogel Aguilera Mederos. The Justice for Julius Jones campaign has received 6.5 million adherents. This black athlete from the University of Oklahoma was sentenced to death in 2002, at the age of 19, for a murder he has always denied. The intense mobilization led the Republican governor of this very conservative state, Kevin Stitt, to commute his sentence to life imprisonment on November 18, a few hours before the lethal injection.
The Justice for Elijah McClain petition has been signed 5.6 million times. The 23-year-old black man died in August 2019 in Aurora, Colorado, after being brutally overpowered by three police officers who were looking for a prowler. On November 19, the city of Aurora, employer of the offending agents, paid a record compensation of 15 million dollars (more than 13 million euros) to the family of the victim.