they had to stand in the rain. if that is the worst that happens that s not too bad. school s principal said some of the team s football gear may have been destroyed in the fire but he is glad nobody was hurt. the cause of the fire is under investigation. jon: wow. a arizona woman convicted of having her four-year-old son killed for insurance money is set to be released from prison today. debra mill key has been on death row in arizona for 20 years. she is going home to await a retrial in her case. a judge set her bond at quarter of a million dollars this week, six months after a federal appeals court overturned her conviction. the court find there is no evidence directly linking her to the boy s death. even a confession from a convicted accomplice is now in doubt. bring in the legal panel. fred tecce, former federal prosecutor. also with us, ashley merchant, criminal defense attorney. fred, this story was big news when it happened two decades
place before you have your client plead guilty which essentially what he has done on video at this point. jon: i gather, fred, his defense lawyer argued against him doing it. but he basically says, the defense lawyer says, look, he is taking responsibility for it. hire, this is a good man and he just wants to put all of this out there. i guess that is the best you can do if you re the defense lawyer at this point. nice spin, buddy, good job. because that is pretty much all you have left for you. this is why i let people like ashley do criminal defense than i do it. the only thing worse than clients is no clients. this guy fits right smack in the bill. guaranty told him by the way, buddy, don t shoot your mouth off on it. v. he did it and obviously didn t. he will pay the consequences, is it going to hurt him in court, ashley? maybe, serious, maybe there s a judge who appreciates the honesty and candor here? right. and the prosecution may appreciate that. the victim s family might a
we are sliding down the slippery slope at this point. we re not even there s no brakes, we re just going straightforward. it s no different than if i borrow my friend s sunglasses and then i forget to return them and i know she s driving and the sun s out, and she gets caught in a glare and gets into an accident, can those people sue me because it was reasonably foreseeable that she might be distracted because of the glare and the sun? i mean, this is, this can go on forever. i mean, these examples, this is just one i just thought of. there is no where is the personal accountability? the only person who is responsible for reading a text is the person behind the wheel who should not be reading a text while they re driving. you should not be able to blame someone else for your mistake. jon: fred, i know you have a couple of similar comparisons. well, i do, i mean, a couple things, you know how lawyers hate sliply slopes, but slippery slopes, but if i m standing on the side of the
be able to sue the host which is kind of akin to this. but again, that was by legislation, and hopefully the new jersey legislature will take some action on this. jon: and also part of this, esther, is apparently the person who is sending the text has to know that the person receiving the text is behind the wheel. and reading. with it s not just know, it s know or should have known. no, no. so it s an extra burden. no, they specialize knowledge, they re actually reading the text while they re driving, that s what the opinion says. jon: well, again, personal responsibility seems to be going out the window. we ll see what the supreme court of new jersey decides if this case gets there, and you think it will, fred? i think they re going to have to take it. jon: all right. esther, fred, thank you both. thanks for having me. thank you. alisyn: and speaking of driving, jon, which u.s. city has the worst drivers in the country? there s a new study out with the hard numbers.
even if you are not the one behind the wheel? a new jersey court has ruled that anyone who knowingly texts a driver could be held liable if that driver crashes. is that fair? let s bring in our legal panel today, esther panich, fred tecce is a former federal prosecutor. all right, let me wrap my mind around the this, fred, if i can. this applies, this ruling comes out of a new jersey case. a couple was on a motorcycle it s fairly well known case they were on a motorcycle. a teenage driver who was engaged in a text conversation with his teenage girlfriend, he slammed into them with his pickup truck. they lost parts of their legs, this couple did, and they sued. now an appeals court in new jersey has affirmed that if you knowingly text somebody who is behind the wheel and they get in an accident, you re responsible. is that fair? well, first of all, a couple things, jon. you know, i live in new jersey, and i have a new jersey driver s