With regard to the black kid, that's sad, however, you take your victim as you find them. More than being black, he was likely poor and therefor had no chance in our legal system, it's all about money. The state has unlimited resources with which to prosecute a defendant. The state provides very little resources for the public defender.
The rich don't get special treatment from the legal system by and large, but they can afford to put up a defense, which more often than you might think can get a guilty person off of the charges they face.
I don't disagree with the judges decision. I have more of a problem with the sentence she handed to the black kid than her allowing this white drunk kid to walk.
Sending this kid to prison will do nothing to help the victims or their families. Our system has decided to call itself the "correctional system."
What exactly would sending this kid to prison for years correct? If anything needs correcting, it is more likely to get corrected at a rehab than a state prison.
Intent matters, though. While on the face of it what the white kid did seems worse, but legally it isn't. The white kid was drunk, and acting with no intent to harm 4 people died from his actions.
The black kid, although "only punching" someone, took an action that intended to harm another human being, the results of his volitional act was the death of his victim.
Under law, a volitional act with intent to harm which results in death is worse than an accident, regardless of the results of that accident.
We don't know if that black kid was an honor roll student who had never been in trouble, or maybe he was a violent, gang-affiliated inner city youth with a record of trouble. We just don't know, but the judge who handed down the sentence did.