Amy Locane-Bovenizer Manslaughter Sentence Appealed by Prosecutor as Too Light

Actress was sentenced to three years in prison when crime usually carries five to 10 years

Amy Locane-Bovenizer's three-year prison sentence just isn't enough for some.

The Melrose Place star's punishment, handed down last week following her conviction for vehicular manslaughter and assault, was appealed today by the Office of the Somerset County Prosecutor in New Jersey.

"Our office is extremely disappointed with the judge's decision to drop down the sentence and on top of that, to impose the very bottom end of the third-degree sentencing range," prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano said in a statement, per the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

With the judge determining that Locane-Bovenizer's disabled young child shouldn't be made to suffer more than he had to for his mother's crime, she was sentenced to three years apiece on the manslaughter and assault counts, with the sentences to run concurrently.

Locane-Bovenizer had been facing a possible five to 10-year sentence on the vehicular manslaughter rap alone for the 2010 DUI crash that killed 60-year-old Helene Seeman.

"The sentence sends a bewildering message to our society about the consequences of driving while intoxicated, improperly places focus upon the defendant's personal circumstances and, quite frankly, revictimizes the true victims in this case," Soriano continued. "It is the position of this office that the judge mistakenly applied the law in sentencing this defendant. The filing of this appeal is the very least, we believe, to which the victim's family is now entitled."

Per the Star-Ledger, the victim's widower, Fred Seeman, yelled at Locane-Bovenizer following her sentencing Thursday, "Having a sick child doesn't give you a pass to kill my wife!"

As it stands now, she will be eligible for parole in two and a half years and will receive credit for 81 days she already spent behind bars between her Nov. 27 conviction and Feb. 13, the day before she was sentenced.

"I hope you believe that I never intentionally set out to put anyone at risk that night," Locane-Bovenizer addressed the family in court. "Please know that the reality that I did cause you such loss haunts me every day and it will continue to for the rest of my life."