Court upholds 42-year sentence
An attorney for 19-year-old Zachariah Blanton had appealed the sentence as inappropriate, arguing that the shooting "was a more or less routine act of manslaughter, if such a thing is said to exist."
But in an eight-page ruling, the court disagreed, noting that the shooting terrorized drivers who had done nothing to make Blanton angry, and the trial court was free to consider that as an aggravating factor in his sentence.
"The harm to the motoring public is inherent to this offense -- randomly and intentionally shooting at cars with a rifle from a highway overpass creates a public fear beyond that of the 'ordinary' manslaughter in which the victim is at least associated with creating the sudden heat that results in the death," the court wrote in its ruling Thursday.