DaveOnLI

These two 'innocent' bystanders turned left in front of oncoming traffic. At in intersection where they could easily see the oncoming traffic for 1/2 mile.
Just another couple of facts for you.
Certainly two wrongs don't make a right and I don't mean to defend the racers here but I've been following this case since it happened and I'm tired of hearing them called innocent. They crossed in front of oncoming traffic.

Spooled

Well, I don't think the drivers were expecting those cars to be approaching them at 140mph. If they were looking towards the headlights it would be almost impossible to judge the speed at which the cars were approaching. Even if the cars were going 75mph in that 55 zone they still would've had time to make their left or right turn. Either way, if the teens had been obeying the speed limit, they would've had time to react to the "bad" decision the couple made if they did in fact pull out into oncoming traffic.

Slamnasty

Perhaps 2 wrongs were made here: the speeding and the turning into oncoming traffic. But the speeding is definitely the issue here.

I also disagree that they consider this 2nd-degree murder, as getting charged with the word "murder" also requires premeditation directed at the victims in question:

Definition of Second Degree Murder

The prosecuting lawyer would also likely have to prove which driver premeditated against which victim(s), or some other legal conundrum. I doubt that the racers decided to race just to take out 2 specific people turning into oncoming traffic in NY, a city of over 20 million people. Any lawyer who tried to prosecute these two racing idiots would himself be a "dumbass" for attempting it, because he'd lose on definition alone, and your two racers would be back out on the street.

DaveOnLI

Well if your your going to pull out the defiinitons:

MALICE AFORETHOUGHT, KILL WITH - To kill either deliberately and intentionally or recklessly with extreme disregard for human life.

I'm sure the prosecutor has a leg to stand on in this case using the last half of this definition as his guide.

honda606

Sorry but I don't know many SUV's that can hit 140 in a 55mph zone.

b0mbrman

Perhaps they would have had more time to react had they been going 55 and if they had more driving experience

WPS

i wonder if the can prove that a corvette can go 139 to 55mph in less than 5 seconds. if the car is more capable of stopping , is it less wreckless...

C U AT 9K

All cars have that black box. A while ago there was a story about some guy in i think it was a corvette or bmw, and he hit this lady that was backing out of her driveway. and they wanted to blame it on the lady cause it was suposedly her fault for not looking, but it turned out the guy was doin like 120 down a residential raod after they looked at the log in the computer. he got tried for murder i believe. it also showed that he didnt even brake. just kept going. i think he was drunk....
but yeah, unfortunate, and beaware that all cars DO have this and it DOES get used as evidence.

Slamnasty

I'm guessing, then, that, in addition to 2nd-degree murder, they'd have to charge the racers with attempted murder on everyone else who was not a victim, but a bystander/witness.

I doubt such a thing is likely to happen.

The Hoth

In animal kingdom, inexperienced and young animals will explore different things, sometime they lose their lives doing that. It is just nature.

In Homosapien setting, a youngster can drive two ton vehicle and end up killing some innocent bystanders.

The morale of the story, young people will always incline to do reckless things like that, but the key is their parents to use their common sense not to give the keys of a CORVETTE to their underage son!

2nd degree or manslaughter....? Maybe 20 years in jail? Good deal for them. On the other hand, those two innocent bystanders will never come back.