So I'll throw one more example out to you all. My wife's brother was killed in a car wreck when he was 19. He and two buddies had been out drinking a little beer in Mobile and were goofing off with some girls and chasing them along Wolf Ridge Road. Well, if you know Wolf Ridge Road, you know it's hilly and winds with a couple of sharp turns coming over one of the hills. My BIL was asleep/passed out in the back seat so thank God he didn't suffer or know what happened. Anyway, his friend lost control of the car, hit a tree and basically decapitated the passenger in the front seat and my BIL had massive head trauma as he wasn't strapped in. The driver broke his foot. My mother in law, being the absolute forgiving angel that she is, testified on behalf of my BIL's friend saying "He killed his two best friends. He has to live with that." The driver ended up serving I think 5 years involuntary manslaughter. Again, preventable, stupid, blah, blah, yep it was, but it happened.
I can't sit here and tell you that I never did that. I did. I was just lucky. Most of us did and some probably still do. In this case, the State did what they had to do. He was intoxicated, and by law he committed one crime, DUI, that led to the death of two others. He knowingly consumed excessive amounts of alcohol. I think "knowingly" is probably the key to him getting punished v. the parents who unknowingly leave their kids in the car.