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Dear Friend
It’s a shocking story that highlighted the equally shocking conditions that many pedestrians and transit riders face every day.
Raquel Nelson, a metro Atlanta mother, was crossing the street from a bus stop to her apartment complex with her three children after a long trip that included an hour plus wait between buses. Along with a handful of fellow passengers headed to the apartment complex, she unsurprisingly chose to cross the street at the bus stop rather than walk more than half a mile in the dark to the nearest traffic signal and back with her tired children.
They were struck by a hit-and-run driver, killing her youngest son.
Then the unbelievable happened: Cobb County charged this grieving mother, who did not even own a car at the time, with vehicular homicide and other charges, carrying a potential sentence of 36 months in jail. A jury of six – none of whom had ever taken a local bus – convicted her July 12. Yesterday the judge sentenced her to 12 months’ probation, community service, and the burden of paying court costs. In the face of widespread outcry, she also offered her the option of a retrial, and Nelson intends to exercise that right to clear her name.
But we think she should never have been charged in the first place.
Sign this petition to the Georgia Governor and the Cobb County Solicitor General requesting her immediate pardon or refusal to prosecute her again in a new trial.
We’re going to combine our efforts with another petition started by concerned activist Eliza Harris to deliver all the signatures together and try to spare Raquel Nelson from ever facing these charges again.
The situation Raquel has been placed in is ridiculous and alarming – a point we’ve been making all week in our media outreach and on our blog:
What about the highway designers, traffic engineers, transit planners and land use regulators who allowed a bus stop to be placed so far from a signal and made no other provision for a safe crossing; who allowed – even encouraged, with wide, straight lanes – prevailing speeds of 50-plus on a road flanked by houses and apartments; who carved a fifth lane out of a wider median that could have provided more of a safe refuge for pedestrians; who designed the entire landscape to be hostile to people trying to get to work and groceries despite having no access to a car?
They are as innocent as the day is long, according to the solicitor general’s office.
We think that it’s an outrage, and we want to make sure that Raquel Nelson walks away from this with no probation, no fines, and certainly no jail time. The death of her son is enough of a burden to bear.
Join us in calling for her to be cleared of these charges and pardoned immediately.
Thanks for all you do,
Stephen Lee Davis
Deputy Communications Director
Transportation for America
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