By Jaime Lakin Opelika-Auburn News Bureau Reporter
News 3 On Your Side
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley wants law makers to toughen the state's DUI laws. On Tuesday, he held a press conference in Montgomery to talk about his proposal on how to do that.News 3 On Your Side
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Stumble It!Riley's proposal would beef up the penalties for DUI convictions and close a "loophole" in the current law to allow every DUI offense to count toward felony status, according to a release the Governor’s office issued following the announcement.
Under the current law which was amended in 2006, a repeat DUI offender only reaches felony status if they commit four DUI offenses within a five year period. The proposal would do away with that time element -- a fact that local law enforcement say they believe is not only a good idea, but a matter of public safety.
“It’s absolutely a public safety issue,” said Lee County District Attorney Nick Abbett. “It should be fixed because I’ve got people indicted for felony DUI that because of the 2006 amendment, I’m having to work out pleas for first offense DUIs because their priors are more than 5 years old.”
Under the current law, first, second and third DUI offenses carry a misdemeanor charge and lesser penalties, but prior convictions bring “enhancements” to those penalties and the time element plays a factor then in if and how those prior offenses can be considered in sentencing.
Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said his offices feels like it is part of their mission to help keep people safe on the roadways in Lee County and he is also in favor of a change to the law.
“It is something that affects all of us either directly or indirectly,” he said, adding that anything that would make the law more stringent in dealing with such offenses is in the best interest of public safety.
And when it comes to alcohol-related offenses on the road, both Abbett and Jones said it’s a problem they see across the board.
“It’s a community issue,” Abbett said. “It’s not just young people. It’s the chronic alcoholics that have the multiple offenses.
“DUI drivers re-offend probably more than any other crime and you know it's hard to get a person to want to stop being an alcoholic and until they want to stop being an alcoholic they won't ... Is incarceration a deterrent? Yes. But will it fix the problem? No.”
And Jones said the ultimate goal is prevention.
“We’d rather take preventive action than enforcement action,” he said, because when it gets to the point of enforcement the public has already been put at risk.
The governor’s proposal also asks for an increase in the minimum punishments for drunk drivers who exceed a .15 blood alcohol concentration level. For more information on the governor’s proposed changes, visit his office’s Web site.
