Donte Stallworth

[Darth Biscuit]

There was a huge discussion on here last year about Stallworth and his accident/arrest/career/punishment, etc. here:

http://www.carolinahuddle.com/forum/carolina-panthers/13999-stallworth-gets-30-days-for-murder.html

I thought about this last night watching the game and then PFT had an article on him today:

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/08/13/donte-stallworth-returns-to-the-field/

A lot of people were unhappy about the situation and felt that he deserved more punishment... I argued at the time that jailtime or whatever was meaningless in this case, he was punished and further, he compensated the family...

I felt at the time that Stallworth was himself doing the right thing and that the judge in the case was too... now I'm sure of it.

A recent article from Les Carpenter of Yahoo! Sports suggests that Stallworth's return could have come a lot sooner, but for his decision to take full responsibility for the accident. Per Carpenter, Stallworth "ordered" his lawyers to accept a plea deal to felony DUI manslaughter despite evidence that easily created reasonable doubt as to whether Stallworth's legal intoxication actually "caused" Reyes' death. Put simply, Reyes was out of the crosswalk on a busy highway, and it's entirely possible that Stallworth would have struck and killed Reyes even if Stallworth had never consumed a drop of alcohol in his life.

Sounds to me like Stallworth is a pretty stand up guy.

[Purity-Control]

I agree. And I'm sure the monetary compensation made to the family ensured that they didn't press for a stiffer sentence.