Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Senate Approves Anti-DWI Measures

By Barry Massey
Associated Press
SANTA FE — Repeat drunken drivers would face longer prison sentences under legislation approved Tuesday by the Senate.
A measure also passed the Senate to overturn a court decision that prosecutors say has made it more difficult to obtain convictions in drunken driving cases.
The sentencing bill would count felony drunken driving convictions for purposes of the state's habitual offender law, which adds mandatory prison time to the basic sentence of offenders with previous felonies.
Under current law, fourth and subsequent drunken driving convictions are felonies.
The legislation would add a year to the prison sentence of a person with a fifth DWI conviction, four years for a sixth conviction and eight years for a seventh or subsequent conviction.
Under current law, a fifth DWI conviction is punishable by two years in prisons. Seventh or subsequent convictions carry a prison sentence of three years.
The Senate approved two identical bills to allow "habitual offender'' sentencing to be applied to drunken drivers, which would undo a decade-old ruling by the state Supreme Court.
Also passing the Senate was a measure to counteract a recent state Court of Appeals ruling involving the use of tests administered to people suspected of drunken driving.
Under the legislation, a person would be presumed to be intoxicated if they had a blood- or breath-alcohol test within three hours of driving and it showed the individual had exceeded the state's 0.08 percent alcohol limit.
A court ruling last year prevented the use of the tests as evidence in drunken driving cases unless prosecutors presented expert witnesses to reconstruct what a defendant's level of intoxication was at the time of driving.
The bill passed the Senate on a 30-3 vote and was sent to the House for consideration.