CBS 21 Community

It's a sad state of affairs when you criminalize stupidity.  Rachel Kozlusky unfortunately lost her life but was certainly culpable in this affair.  Mountain climbers do ignorant things and lose their lives.  Should their co-climbers go to prison?  I think not.  As a society we have come to believe that jail is the answer to all evils.  Doesn't it say something that we are second only to China in the number of our citizens that reside in our jails?

I feel sorry for all involved....but look at the big picture...she was a major player in this incident...she was drunk too but because she died that is excusable...I think not.  Her family has certainly suffered an irreversible loss but they must own up to the fact that she was a willing participant and paid the ultimate price.

I think the sentence is fair.  Jail time is not the most important element of the sentence.   Will the community service be cleaning trash off of streets, or will it be 100 2-hour presentations in high schools and middle schools?   If the latter, I think this sentence will do wonders for Kevin's future.  

I think the setence is completely unfair and unjust.  I like the idea that he should be held to community service and I love the idea of doing high school presentations.  The idea that he should spend time in jail is ridiculous, he was not in this alone and he is not a criminal..a foolish kid yes, but a criminal no.

What everyone (general public) seems to be forgetting is that she was a WILLING participant in all of this.  He did not throw her out the window against her will.  He did not force her to drink the unimaginable amout of alcohol that she did prior to her death.  The situation is tragic, as is when anyone loses their life, but to jail a man when it was a MUTUAL wrongdoing is harsh.  What if it had been a lesser fall and she had survived albeit with injuries--would their still be a sentence?  What would the charges be?  Would they BOTH be charged with wrongdoing and endangerment/public drunkeness?
This being said, I believe because she lost her life and there was drinking involved, an example is being made from serving Kevin Eckenrode with jail time...what will this solve?  
If you want to make an example, do as MattB/Joeintheburg wisely suggested-- sentence him to go into highschools and talk to impressionable kids about what the consequences of drinking alcohol could be.  The tragedy over losing someone you love ,because of doing something so stupid, that was only attempted because rational thought was impaired with alcohol.