AN INTERESTING article by Time magazine's Amanda Ripley regarding the September 11 attacks outlines how much a life is worth after death. The government used a formula to determine how much compensation a family deserved for the death of a loved one that included factors like marital status, number of children, and expected income for the rest of that individual's life. While the worth of an individual may be (more or less) agreed upon, the other side of the coin is still murky at best and inconsistent at worst. While the government has determined a formula for a life's worth, justice has yet to objectively determine how much a life costs.\nThe recent sentence handed down to R&B singer Chris Brown may give us some insights as to how much punishment a person deserves if he puts a life in danger. Brown was sentenced to five years probation, one year of counseling, and six months of community labor services for his February assault on then-girlfriend singer Rihanna. What is most disturbing about this sentence is not the harshness - or lack thereof - of the punishment, but the public opinion that this sentence will suffice.\nFor a superstar that is used to the royal treatment, six months of labor might seem suitable, but for the millions of Americans who go to back-breaking jobs on a daily basis, a nine-to-five of picking up trash on the highway for half a year is child's play.\nWhat is even more outrageous is that there is a documented history of Brown's violence towards Rihanna. According to CNN, the probation report on Brown stated that there were two other disputes between the couple that turned physical. To let a repeat abuser walk without jail time is inexcusable.\nGoing back to the original point of the cost of taking or endangering a life, this case measures up to several other celebrity cases in its seriousness but not in its sentencing. NFL wide receiver Plaxico Burress was sentenced to two years in prison for shooting himself in the leg. Ex-Falcon and current Philadelphia Eagle Michael Vick had a widely publicized trial for dogfighting. He was later sentenced to 23 months in prison, 18 of which he served. The most outrageous case has to be Donte Stallworth, whose case hasn't exactly been plastered on the headlines. Stallworth ran over a pedestrian and killed him in the process while driving intoxicated. His sentence was a mere 30 days in jail (24 of which he has to serve).\nAn argument can be made that each of these crimes occurred under different circumstances (different states, different levels of fame, intent, etc.), but should such a large discrepancy exist between these celebrities and the general public? In these cases, society (or a judge looking out for society's best interest) judged that financing a dog-fighting ring meant that the guilty party should be given two years in prison and be driven to bankruptcy while killing someone with a vehicle constitutes 30 days and an out of court settlement.\nAre we really more tolerant to a repeat domestic abuser than a buffoon who shot himself in the leg? Are we supposed to accept Brown back because he appeared on Larry King Live with a puppy face and rehearsed the lines fed to him by his celebrity lawyer? Or are we just suckers for a "love story" because Rihanna still had feelings for Brown after the attack?\nMany readers are not going to feel as outraged by this favorable treatment towards Brown because they may not see the gravity of the situation. I opened this article trying to examine how much it would cost someone if they took another person's life. In fairness to Brown, he is not a murderer, but what he did (punching, biting, choking) was not as far from murder as we would like to think. If his next punch had landed in a more severe place or if he had held his choke for a few more seconds, would there be any discussion of whether or not he should be in jail?\nHung Vu is a columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at h.vu@cavalierdaily.com.
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