Weird News of An Oklahoma teen convicted of manslaughter sentenced to 10 years of Church Attendance.
An Oklahoma teen convicted of manslaughter sentenced to 10 years of probation, with requirements that include regularly attending church.
Tyler Alred is currently 17 years old who was convicted of manslaughter. He was drinking when he had a crash with his pickup truck at approximately 4am on Dec. 3, 2011, Tulsa World reports. The accident killed Alred's friend, 16-year-old John Luke Dum, who was a passenger in the vehicle.
However it has been determined that he was not legally drunk as he is a minor. Nevertheless he was still driving under the influence of alcohol. He subsequently pleaded guilty in August to a charge of manslaughter as a youthful offender.
"I did not want to do what I did," Alred told the court prior to his sentencing. "I want to change my life."
Dum’s family expressed that they did not wish to see him convicted behind prison walls, Muskogee Phoenix reported. "We don't need to see two lives wasted for a mistake," Dum's sister, Caitlin, wrote in a statement.
Therefore instead of a prison sentence, Judge Mike Norman granted the teen a 10-year deferred sentence. So that if he wishes to remain outside of prison walls, Alred must “graduate from high school; graduate from welding school; take drug, alcohol and nicotine tests for a year; wear a drug and alcohol bracelet, take part in victim's impact panels, and attend church for the next 10 years.”
This last criteria, "raises legal issues because of (the separation of) church and state," University of Oklahoma law professor Randall Coyne told the Tulsa World.
of Tulsa law professor Gary Allison told KTUL that the church requirement "speaks to maybe forcing people to do religious activities that they would otherwise not do on their own free will … I don't know why a church would want to have someone come to it under the force of government,"
This apparently isn't the case for Alred, though. "My client goes to church every Sunday," defense attorney Donn Baker told the court.
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