Sentencing of truck driver to 110 years in prison is controversial in the United States

4.7 million signatures demand leniency for Rogel Aguilera-Mederos. The latter is a 26-year-old American who was sentenced to 110 years in prison for accidentally killing four people and injuring six others, in a car crash on a highway in April 2019.

He was riding a semi-trailer loaded with wood that day when his brakes, he said, failed on a descent. He had finished his race at over 130 km / h in vehicles which were immobilized by an accident. The pile-up involved a total of 28 vehicles, some of which were set on fire in shock.

The condemnation of Rogel Aguilera-Mederos may at first glance appear very heavy. But, in reality, it responds to Colorado laws which mechanically forced the judge to accumulate prison sentences corresponding to the charges. In this trial, the latter being 27 in number against the accused. Even Judge Bruce Jones, who conducted the driver’s trial, said in his judgment last week that “if he had had the power”, he would not have pronounced such a severe sanction.

Faced with a conviction “completely disproportionate” by the defense, a petition was launched on the Change.org site. Signed to date by nearly 4.7 million people, it asks the Colorado authorities to pardon the young man or to commute his sentence.

“We are trying to hold the person who needs to be held accountable, accountable. The trucking company has undergone several inspections since 2017, with several mechanical violations. There are a lot of things Rogel could have done to avoid the courts, but he took his responsibilities and apologized severely to the families of the victims “, can we read in particular.

Reality star Kim Kardashian took to the young man’s plight on Twitter, calling Colorado Governor Jared Polis, “to do the right thing”, as well as to amend the laws of Colorado “unjust”. The governor said he had received a request for clemency and was studying it. For their part, the prosecutor’s services indicated that they had requested a new hearing to review the conviction of Rogel Aguilera-Mederos.