Jailed Minnesota Toyota owner may get retrial

You can’t help but wonder (without reading the court transcripts and judgement) how the sentencing of Koua Fong Lee could be so harsh. In 2006, Lee’s Toyota Camry, with his pregnant wife, daughter, brother and father on board, accelerated out of control and smashed into an Oldsmobile, killing three people in the second car back in 2006. The judge threw the book at him, giving him the maximum eight years, even though Lee, a recent immigrant, was adamant he was hard on the brakes and not the accelerator at the time of the accident. I don’t know Minnesotan criminal law, but one would think this churchgoing man, with no prior crimes, lacked the mens rea to deserve the full sentence; unless it was cumulative for the three deaths.
   Investigations showed there was nothing wrong with the brakes—but, with hindsight, there could have been something wrong with the accelerator or the cruise control, considering that Lee’s Camry was going at 90 mph when it hit the Oldsmobile.
   What we can very likely say was that this was not the America that Koua Fong Lee expected to emigrate to.
   While the 1996 Camry Lee drove was not part of the Toyota recall, American media suggest that some of these models were repaired for faulty cruise controls. Chances are he will get a retrial, so in light of this new evidence, let’s hope the Lees, and the Adams and Boltons who lost their family members, will see some justice.