14 DAY TRIAL // A rich, spoiled 16-year-old from Texas managed to get out of a harsh sentence after killing four people in a car crash and injuring 3 more. Psychologists argued he is suffering from “affluenza,” a mental condition that refers to being too rich to understand consequences.
The rich kid's case made it all over the Internet with people being outraged and shocked after seeing that an unheard-of condition, that sounds more than far-fetched got the teenage killer out of a well-deserved sentence. Instead of going to jail, attorneys recommended going to rehabilitation clinic to receive treatment against his wealth-corrupted behavior.
Ethan Couch caused a horrible drunk accident that led to the death or four innocent people, critically injured two, and left another paralyzed with the ability to communicate only by blinking his eyes. His defense in court was brought by psychologists who stated that the boy was suffering from “a condition caused by the wealth of his parents giving him freedoms no young person would be able to handle.”
The privileged kid doesn't seem to link his behavior to consequences, making it impossible for him to rationally understand the term of effects. The enormous wealth his family possesses and the fact that Ethan had more than he actually needed, in terms of material things, makes him unable to process certain emotions.
According to his family, the kid suffering from “affluenza” used to be emotionally flat and needed years of therapy in order to recover, also contributing to his unique disorder. The juvenile court accepted the defense and sentenced Couch to 10-year probation instead of almost 20 years of jail for driving drunk and causing the death of four, according to News.com.
With his case causing such a massive reaction, people took to Twitter or Facebook to bash the court for letting him go so easily and to mock the so-called “affluenza” condition. One user wrote “Ethan Couch's defense is claiming that he can't go to jail because he is too rich and spoiled to know right from wrong...he killed 4 people,” while another proposed a cure for the spoiled 16-year-old, “there is a known and effective cure for Affluenza. It's called jail.”