Forgiveness

The Ceran Family Before the Crash

Murray, Utah December 24, 2006. The Ceran family had just about the most tragic Christmas you could possibly imagine. An illegal alien drunk driver, Carlos Prieto, ran a red light and crashed his pickup into the Ceran's car, killing the mother Cheryl, 15 year old son Ian, and 7 year old daughter Julia. The father, Gary Ceran, 12 year old son Caleb, and 18 year old daughter Clarissa, were injured but survived.

Just for the senseless loss of life this story would be noteworthy enough. But the incredible thing is, at Prieto's sentencing hearing, Gary Ceran said he forgave the driver and plead for the judge to show leniency. In fact, he claimed he forgave him very quickly after the accident.

The judge sentenced Prieto to 10 years.

Deputy District Attorney Langdon Fisher said he couldn't recall ever arguing for a harsher sentence than the one sought by a victim. The prosecutor wanted three consecutive sentences of five years in prison.

Certainly no one would blame Gary Ceran if he still harbored anger about such an outrageous incident; I know my own forgiveness would not have been so quickly coming. Forgiveness is not just a luxury, it is in fact a charge that Christ gave to all of us. But 99% of the things people do to us are relatively easy to forgive; losing three family members is another order of magnitude altogether. Mr. Ceran obviously has a very rare strength of character.

At the court hearing Thursday, he said he's been called naive by people who have vilified Prieto for being in the country illegally and driving while drunk.

"I and my children, who have been most injured by his actions both physically and emotionally, harbor no such feelings," Ceran said.

That's certainly his right. Few people have suffered this kind of tragedy (additionally, the Cerans also lost three children in the past due to illnesses), and no one else can speak to their pain or how they should feel about it.

I would like to give him one piece of advice though: prison is not about revenge (or at least its not supposed to be). I'm not certain what sentence Mr. Ceran would think is just, but even if you completely forgave Prieto, that doesn't mean he should get a short sentence. It would be irresponsible to allow Prieto the opportunity to get behind the wheel again for a very long time, and completely unjust to another family if he killed someone again. Even if he was deported immediately, he could drive drunk again in his native country.

There's one more aspect of this case that is not getting much attention. The man kills three people and the MOST he can possibly get is 15 years? What is wrong with this picture? Additionally, I think most Americans do not have full confidence that he would even be deported after serving his sentence. He certainly wasn't before the tragedy.