DUI punishment

[Ed62]

It's getting to be looked at as something very serious. Check it out http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,242581,00.html

Ed

[ragswl4]

About time. Its an interesting discussion about manslaughter vs murder. Seems if its a first offense, maybe manslaughter. Second offense along with driving without a license I am not sure I would be so liberal with that. Perhaps a person who has once been convicted of DUI should be given no quarter on the second offense and have the book thrown at them. Might stop a lot of second offenders. Then again, lots of stupid people out there that have no respect for other's lives when it coming to drinking and driving. JMHO.

[radhak]

Good article.

I agree with the tone of the article - guilty, but not of murder.

The larger problem of course is of uneven dispensation of justice. Not unlike language-paper grading by teachers. Some are very lenient and give an A+ as long as there are no grammatical mistakes and all punctuation is correct. Others hold your nose to the grind before conceding a B-.

If there was just a single prosecutor and the same judge for all such cases, we'd get consistency, whether or not Just. But as that is not practicable, it's good such discussions are taking place, to bring the spirit of the law to bear.

As an aside, I am always struck by how much everybody is swayed by visual horror. A child decapitated is just as tragic as another smothered to death by an airbag - neither more nor less. The guilt of the driver does not change in either case.

[Daryl]

I think the second one had a more sensationalized feeling about it what with the video and the young girl decapitated.. The prosecuter knew he wouldn't have to work as hard to get a conviction. The first prosecuter probably saw problems convicting a middle class mother.
My opinion they are both worthless humans and should be kept under lock for the rest of their lives.

[shoottx]

Alcoholism is a disease

Drunk Driving is the crime.

[just started]

If you kill someone during a second DUI you should absolutely be charged with murder, especially if your license is still suspended from the first DUI.

[LCHIEN]

If you kill someone during a second DUI you should absolutely be charged with murder, especially if your license is still suspended from the first DUI.

that's what I was thinking.

[cabinetman]

There's nothing accidental about driving drunk. Manslaughter has been on the books a long time. Whether it's considered murder, would be up to a jury.
.

[docrowan]

My personal opinion would be to up the prison terms for manslaughter for second offense DUI's. I know the legal definition of murder may be different, but to me murder indicates intent to kill. It seems a stretch to me that someone drunk out of their gourd intends to involve themselves and a random group of people in a fatal car crash. Don't get me wrong, I think 15 years for manslaughter on a second offense isn't heavy enougy. But it seems to me the prosecutor is usurping the legislature's power by trying to make a murder case out of it because he doesn't believe manslaughter carries a heavy enough penalty.

[sweensdv]

It may not be murder by definition but a life or lives were still lost needlessly. Driving drunk is a choice not an accident. I have a real simple solution to the drunk driving epidemic in this country. First offense you get a year in jail with no work release privileges and no early release. If someone is killed during the first offense the sentence is automatically 5 years. Each subsequent offense will bring a sentence of triple the first offense, i.e. 3 years or 15 years if a death occurs, and so on. Simple, easy and applied to all!

[pierhogunn]

maybe our ancestors were on to something

1st offence 1 day in the stocks, on the court house steps, and your car is started with a breathalyzer that you pay to install and you pay to have read


2nd offence, 2 days in the stocks, on the court house steps, and you loose a pinkey finger, and your car only works from the hours of 6AM to 8PM

3rd offence, We HANG YOUR BUTT...

If anyone is killed in the commission of your DUI, go straight to step 3

Or maybe we could turn this into a money making adventure.

If you go to a place that serve's booze, you hand the server your keys... to get them back, you have to blow. if you blow over the legal limit in that state, you don't get your keys back, you get to pay for a cab ride where the money is split between the cabby and the place where you got sloshed

Now I know this will not take care of those that drink at home, but it's got to be able to cut down on some of this problem

[Woodwerker]

I know the legal definition of murder may be different, but to me murder indicates intent to kill.

Murder has nothing to do with intention, rather all to do with action..

[LCHIEN]

...Or maybe we could turn this into a money making adventure.

If you go to a place that serve's booze, you hand the server your keys... to get them back, you have to blow. if you blow over the legal limit in that state, you don't get your keys back, you get to pay for a cab ride where the money is split between the cabby and the place where you got sloshed

Now I know this will not take care of those that drink at home, but it's got to be able to cut down on some of this problem

I can see a big business in keychains with dummy keys.

[Pappy]

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the accused deserves leniency. It was, after all, the first time he got mad and shot his neighbor for mowing at 7 AM. He was not in full control since his party had just ended an hour earlier. As a first time offender, he should have been charged with a lesser crime than murder."

First offense or fiftieth, someone died because of another's intentional actions and decisions. Only the weapon is different.

[docrowan]

Murder has nothing to do with intention, rather all to do with action..

If that were true, why would we have a manslaughter charge at all, plus the different degrees of murder? As far as that goes, there could be no such thing (legally) as an accidental death if another person caused the death to happen. For instance, your car skids out of control on some black ice and you hit and kill me. Clearly not murder or even manslaughter under the law, but the action is just the same and I'm just as dead.

Again, I'm not defending the drunk driver, or even suggesting they receive a stiff enough penalty for repeat offenses under the manslaughter charge. But bending the laws by forcing them into situations they don't apply instead of getting the legislatures to change them leads us down a very slippery slope.