The preceived faults of the mother of the killed children certainly weren't relevant facts to Porters guilt. You do what lawyer Cohen does--try the victim to distract from the perps actions.

If judges and prosecutors could always be relied on to do justice, there would be no reason for electing them. This is a democracy, We all have a duty to assess how the courts are performing.

The Judge was presented with a plea bargain. There was never an exposition of the facts in court: not to a jury and certainly not to the judge. 

The people should have fired the prosecutor out of hand for this one. A trial would have given the kid's mother her chance at justice, given the public a different set of fact to review this case and perhaps even done justice.

As it is now, what we have is a plea deal that thwarted all those positive civic goods. Fire the prosecutor!!!!!!!!!

Why is she denying the fact that they loved each other. Don't you think that she is/was jealous because Diddy was with Lopez and not Porter at the time? Diddy & Lopez had a relationship, why can't she just admit it?  Arizona direct mail

It sorrows me that so many people feel the need to play the blame game with this case. No one person is solely responsible for the death of these children. There is tragedy, loss, and pain on both sides. I was a student in the 7th grade of Liberty Middle School, the same grade and school as Bryant Wilkins was in, at the time of his death. I had to crumble in my desk at the news that he had been killed in a hit-and-run, and I had to shed bitter tears as they held a memorial service for him. I had to create a piece for the service in art class. At the same time, I am a dance student of Jennifer's at her studio. I can testify that she is a loving, innocent, kind-hearted person who would never have intended to leave those children had she been in her right mind. I have never met someone so genuinely sweet. It hurts me deeply to hear what people call her, to listen to the judgements thrown her way. How can people say she has no remorse, when she has tried to kill herself, believing she should have died instead? It was wrong for her to leave the children there, it was a bad decision. But who can say that they know for sure what they would have done in her situation? And who can call Lisa Wilkins a bad mother when every mother has made at least one mistake in their parenting. Bryant was almost fourteen years old. It would appear that he was competent enough to cross the street without his mother. Both sides made a mistake. Both should be forgiven. I empathize with both Jennifer and Lisa Wilkins, knowing that both are scarred for life and will never fully recover from this ordeal. So why must everyone make the situation worse by pointing fingers and calling names? Please, can we leave the situation alone so wounds can heal, and stop judgement when we have no right to judge? No one knows what truly happened besides Jennifer herself, and she lives with the regret every day. I see in her eyes a permanent sadness. Isn't it enough that she must live with what happened?

Settlement rule muzzles lawyer, just not for good
After four months, John Trevena mentions the lawsuit settlement, but he clams up on the details.
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 4, 2003

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CLEARWATER -- Lawyer John Trevena is known in legal circles as someone who never passes up a chance for free publicity.

Trevena's media savvy presented Pinellas County officials with something of a dilemma recently. They wanted to settle a lawsuit Trevena had filed against Sheriff Everett Rice's office. But they didn't want to read about it in the newspaper.

So how do you keep Trevena's mouth shut?

County officials managed the trick (for a while) by telling Trevena that his client couldn't collect a $1,350 settlement unless the lawyer promised in writing to refrain from publicly commenting about the case or the settlement. He agreed.

Breathe a word and the money would be forfeited.

"We just didn't want him blowing his own horn on our account," Domenick Murano, Pinellas' risk management director, said Friday. "It's not like the county wanted to keep it secret. We just told him not to go and make a news story out of it."

That would have been the end of the story except for one thing: Trevena spilled the beans four months after signing the agreement.

Trevena, saying he was honoring his agreement with the county, refused to comment about the case or settlement. But he said he felt he was free to simply mention the case was settled. The unusual agreement is in a public court file open to anyone.

Murano agreed that Trevena was not in violation of the agreement by simply revealing the existence of what is, after all, a public record.

"He can tell anyone he wants," Murano said, as long as the lawyer doesn't offer comment about it.

Trevena filed a lawsuit on behalf of Gary DiViccaro, who was arrested by Pinellas deputies in January 2000 on charges that he tried to scalp Tampa Bay Buccaneers playoff tickets to undercover detectives. The charges were later dismissed.

The suit said the Sheriff's Office falsely arrested him and also violated his Fourth Amendment right to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

In a bit of irony that's hard to miss, Trevena's suit says his client's rights were violated because deputies allowed a TV news crew to videotape the arrest.

Trevena's practice has a penchant for getting odd or newsworthy cases. His name has been in the news more than any Pinellas attorney in recent years. He's represented everyone from a man charged with impersonating a police officer for wearing an LAPD cap to the family of a teenage babysitter who found herself handcuffed at gunpoint.

On Friday, Trevena said the county was trying to avoid more publicity with the agreement.

"It's frightening that the sheriff and his legal henchmen are trying to subvert the First Amendment," Trevena said.

It's not unusual for private litigants to agree not to discuss a settlement. But almost all the county's business is, by law, open to public inspection, making nondisclosure agreements a rarity.

Murano said there is nothing illegal about the agreement. He says the idea for it came from Assistant County Attorney Thomas Spencer.

Spencer said the county wasn't trying to hide anything about a settlement that is in a public file.

He said, "I don't try my cases in the media after the fact. Mr. Trevena was ready and willing to agree that he wouldn't engage in such behavior."

Murano said he cannot recall the county asking an attorney to agree to such a stipulation in his 20 years in risk management.

Sheriff Rice, beneficiary of the nondisclosure agreement, doesn't much care whether Trevena comments about the lawsuit.

He said he didn't insist on secrecy.

"I've developed a thick skin about a lot of things," he said. "As long as they tell the truth, I don't care what people say about me

It amazes me how people can comment on what kind of person Lisa was and is. How people can talk about how ghetto she is and what kind of lousy role model she is for her children. Regardless of the kind of person the dead children's mother is or was, those children were hit and left to die. I myself roll my eyes at women like her because they should know better or at least at some point get the point. No, I don't think Porter should have gotten life, but the fact that she serves no time at all is sickening.

I wonder, why is it that I'm trying to raise my children to respect others? Why stress education to them everyday? Why do I teach them good family values and right from wrong? Why should I? Should someone come along and leave my children for dead in the middle of the street I'd have to worry about the fact that they really are good people who could afford an attorney that can work the system and get them off with a slap on the wrist and make people everywhere feel sorry for them. I mean if we live in a low income neighborhood the kids probably just ran out into the street in front of the car playing tag or something. Since it's likely none of my children have the same father, well that concludes that I'm a sorry mother of low moral fiber and it's really my fault anyway. It would be obvious that it was bound to happen to those little statistics.

Reading some of the comments, I'm afraid for my children. Living in a world filled with people that think it's okay to leave children for dead in the road because their mother wasn't a good mother. If Porter would have gone to a payphone to call 911, okay. If she would have gone home and called them from there, okay. She didn't. She and her family covered it up like it never happened until they couldn't anymore. I don't care about the lights or who Lisa is, those babies didn't deserve to be left like roadkill no matter where they lived or who their mother was.

I do enjoy reading these posts and like the new "it's your times feature".
First, I would like to say the two cases differ in too many ways to compare them well. There was a similar case where all the parties were white and the outcome was the same as the Thornton case. The only place there might have been a racial decision was in placing the charges originally. I strenuously disagreed with Thornton being charged as an adult. In cases of vehicular homicide, the families of the victims must agree to the punishment. I feel (I know I will get lots of flack about what I am going to say) that the punishments for these drivers is too harsh, period.
How many times have you sped, been distracted driving, not used your turn signals, forgotten your wallet, thus drove without a license, been in a hurry and went through a red light, changed lanes too much, too fast, or without turn signals, or missed a stop sign? Never? Do you think these people are out there PLANNING to hit or kill someone in an accident? Should they pay with prison time, espically in the light of the problems at DDC? Are they bad, malious people who are recklessly driving around hoping to hurt someone, or are they people just like you and I. Most of the people I have read about who have gotten 30 years were not even drunk or intoxicated on drugs. Most of these are not bad people. The lack of understanding of the grief everyone involved feels is appalling in all of the cases discussed here.
Maybe Lisa believes in God and doesn't believe in family planning. Believe it or not, young children still walk some distances to school. They are as young as the children who got hit. Now you are saying they should not have been out playing?
Maybe if Jennifer had been black the sentence and charges would have different. There was room for more charges, not only for her, but her parents as well. And SO someone saw a white van. Jennifer's car had blood on it and a cracked windshield from hitting a child.
Maybe if Jennifer had been black and the family had something to say about it, she would still be right where she is now.
I believe the need for overhauling the laws is desperately needed. These drivers need counseling and drivers caught intoxicated can have breath meters put in their cars and receive drug and alcohol treatment and analysis as part of their punshiment. At the very least, they would be better off in a facility where they are all together and apart from other types of criminals and go to school to earn a degree. Remember the next time you speed, look away from the road, don't see a pedestrain, run a red light, speed through a school zone, talk on the phone, glance out the window too long, miss a stop sign, go the wrong way on a one way street, don't use your turn signals, drive without lights at night or in a storm, spill a beverage on your lap, race a car for a few feet, or any other driving mistake you can image, THIS could be you we are talking about here.
And mothers; think about the time the phone rang, the doorbell rang, you had to use the toilet, take a bath, do laundry, cook, clean, work at the office, and all the other chores you do. Have you never left your child a moment and some little thing happened? It happens so fast you don't have a chance and it happens to many loving, caring parents. Their child dies of an accident. A bookcase falls, they fall in the pool, they swallow a marble, a baloon pops and a piece lodges in their throat, or fall from a tree and a branch pierces their brain. It can happen to anyone and we could be talking about them/us right now. I view these drivers as unfortunate people who made mistakes and many pay with their lives. Jennifer not coming forward is just beyound analization. And the people in her life helping and supporting her made things more tragic. I don't know what she feels and neither do you. It's not possible to know how a person thinks and feels.
I hope we change the laws to stop lynching young drivers for mistakes such as these and start doing something productive with and for them all.

Well Lucy everyone has the right to their own opinion, hopefully your opinion is not shared by too many. Our prisons are pretty full as it is. I for one don't believe in punishment for say. I believe we need to help each other be better people. I know there is those among us that have to be locked up to protect us and them. I believe there are to many people released from prison that are still a danger. This is because as a society we have come up with what we feel is the appropiate punishment for certain crimes. Example: California has the three strike rule so a person winds up in prison for life for stealing. Then I seen on the news where someone got 15 years for murder. We need a system that really makes our world a safer place. Putting Jennifer Porter in prison for life does not make our world a safer or better place. When ever we as a society do anything out of anger or fear we are not making our world a safer or better place.

I have read and appreciate the posts here. I appreciated being able to see other's opinions.
I will now post my view.
The accident most likely happened because street lights were out near a playground, and a driver was unable to see dark skinned children probably dressed in dark clothing crossing the street before she apparently struck them in the darkness.
I cannot bring myself to fault Lisa Wilkins as to her fitness as a mother. I gather from the Times' series that there was great love in the family, and that all they had in this world was each other. There are many Lisa Wilkins' who have a hard life yet manage to keep their families together. I have no doubt that her son, had he lived, would someday judge right and wrong by asking himself "What would my Mama say?" Who dares step forward to judge this woman?
Nor can I fault Jennifer Porter or her family. Of course I cannot know exactly what went through their minds when they held off reporting her involvement, but I accept that she did not flee to avoid prosecution for what had happened. She and her family panicked, and in this panic they did things which they would not have done ordinarily. They were simply afraid of the unknown, as we all are.
And like most of the rest of us, they did the right thing in the end.
Jennifer, unlike Lisa, had led a very sheltered life. But there was also a lot of love in her family.
To the respondant who stated that all that had to be done to get the street lights fixed immediately was to report them broken, I can only say that it does not often happen that way. You would think that streetlights close to a playground would get priority, but evidently this is not so. I can also understand the residents of the area going on about their lives without expecting those responsible for the lights to do anything soon about them.
To those who would fault Jennifer Porter for speeding, I would ask you where can you drive without seeing almost everyone speeding at least 5 M.P.H. over the speed limit?
To those who would state that Lisa Wilkins will be foolish with the money she received, I can only say, that from what I have read about the lady, I do not think this will happen. She lived in a far different world than many of us, and she has a lot to learn about handling money, but I think she will be all right.
To those who would make this a black versus white issue, I will bluntly tell you that you only wish it is to suit your own issues.
And to whichever person who decided to put the repair of those streetlights on the "back burner", I will tell you that you are indirectly responsible for the deaths of two children and a lot of heartbreak.
To the Times, I thank you for the series, even though I know that no newspaper publishes "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth". Your reporters perceptions may have been tainted, but they did an excellent job.
And finally, to Lisa and Jennifer, I will offer my hope that they will each be able to recover from this tragedy, and that the rest of their lives will be happy.