All posts tagged: Amy Senser

The Amy Senser trial and making a case for the real victim: Anousone Phanthavong

The saying goes, ‘there’s two legal systems in America: one for the rich and one for the poor’. Is it true in the case of Amy Senser and Anousone Phanthavong? It’s a classic case right out of a movie: the wealthy White trophy wife is pitted against a low-income immigrant who became her fatal victim on a tragic night of two very different worlds colliding. If the roles were reversed, would we be dealing with a completely different outcome by now? It’s not news that the Amy Senser case has been under the microscope of simple negligence, poor judgment, and public crucifixion. At the unfortunate mercy of the media’s own trial on sensationalizing a local icon, they’ve managed to lose focus and momentum for the real victim: the Lao man who lost his life, 38 year-old Anousone Phanthavong. The incident: Amy Senser, the wife of former Minnesota Vikings Joe Senser, is charged with felony criminal vehicular homicide in the Aug. 23, 2011 death of Anousone Phanthavong, whom she struck and killed as he filled his …