GUILTY TN - Barbara Weimer, 69, killed by rock thrown from overpass, Knox Co., 24 May 2004

http://www.wbir.com/News/news.asp?ID=18259

I went to school today for the next to last day for teachers to report. I had heard about the story on the news while I was getting ready, but little did I know that it had hit so close to home. It turns out one of the teachers in my school was the driver of the mini van that was struck by the rock and the victim was her mother! I cry just thinking about poor Malissa and her whole family that was travelling along in their van coming home from a family member's graduation. What must be done to stop such heartless acts? The police are really trying to pin down the driver of the white or offwhite van that was spotted by a trucker who dodged a rock shortly before the fateful incident.

Hug your loved ones and hold them tight. You just never know what lies around the bend...

There was a news story about rocks or other objects being thrown off over passes and killing people, I think in NJ. A father who lost his daughter is trying, or maybe has passed a law, that all overpasses have special fencing that makes it nearly impossible to throw objects at the cars below.

There was a University of Alabama professor, travelling n south Florida who was killed when some vermin threw a concrete block off an overpass. Luckily, they were caught, and convicted. Still, something must be done to prevent this. Push this legislation through!

From January 2008:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/local-news/rock-ruling-lessens-sentence

In a landmark decision Monday, a state appeals court has removed a rock from the list of weapons deemed under state law as destructive devices...

The ruling does two things. One, it fills a gaping hole in a state law that made it a case of first-degree murder to cause a death by throwing a destructive device.

Two, it cuts the prison term of Weimer's killer, Alford Lee Morgan, from a minimum 65-year prison term to 18. With credits for good behavior, Morgan could be eligible for release now in as little as six years.

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From November 2010:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/local-news/driver-in-fatal-case-gets-break

It doesn't take 40 years to rehabilitate a man already on the path to redemption, an appellate court ruled this week in the case of a getaway driver in a fatal Knox County rock-throwing.

In an opinion delivered by appellate Judge Joseph M. Tipton, the state Court of Criminal Appeals slashed nearly in half the 40-year prison term meted out to Matthew Joseph Carter, cutting it to 23 years...

Barbara Weimer, 69, of Knox County was killed when Carter's pal, Alford Morgan, hefted a 10-pound rock off the Brushy Valley overpass on I-75. The incident came after the pair and a third pal embarked on what they called a night of "redneck fun," tossing bricks, rocks and chunks of wood at cars, houses and off the overpass.

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