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Web posted
Thursday, January 29, 2004
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Gilham hopes to toughen DUI law
BEAUFORT COUNTY: Officials say current legislation gives drunken drivers more rights than anyone else on the road.
By Jennifer Moore
Carolina Morning News
A DUI law intended to make South Carolina's roads safer actually hinders police work, Beaufort County's sheriff and assistant solicitor say.
State Rep. JoAnne Gilham, R-Hilton Head Island, hopes to strengthen that legislation, and is the co-sponsor of a House bill introduced to get rid of the loopholes that made it difficult to administer and enforce.
Gov. Mark Sanford recently addressed the problem in his State of the State address, giving credit to Gilham for working to lower a driver's legal blood alcohol limit from .10 to .08, but said the law is still "a weak spot for the law enforcement community in attempts to arrest a drunk on the road.
"I'd say we owe it to them and JoAnne to go back to the drawing board and tighten up this legislation that was made weaker in conference."
The reason the current law is so difficult to enforce, said Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner, is that there are so many technicalities and complications.
One of these complications, he said, is that an officer with video equipment in his car is required to turn on his video equipment when he turns on his blue lights to pull over a suspected drunk driver, and then must read the person's Miranda rights to them before giving them a field sobriety test.
The problem with that requirement, said Beaufort County Assistant Solicitor Duffie Stone, is that the police officer must tell the person in the vehicle he has the right to remain silent before asking him things like "Where have you been tonight?" and "Where have you been drinking?" even though that is not required by federal law.
Because of this, Stone said, the legislation has "given more rights to drunk drivers in South Carolina than the United States Constitution gives them," and also "More rights than anybody else on the road."
And, Tanner said, the law has an exception that says officers without video equipment are not required to give the Miranda warnings before the field sobriety test.
"There are so many technicalities in this law, it's almost impossible to enforce," he said.
The new legislation deletes the section that requires officers to read Miranda rights to suspected drunk drivers before a field sobriety test, Gilham said, and gets rid of a lot of the other language that made it confusing.
Another of the major problems with the current legislation, Stone said, is that when drunk drivers get to court, it is difficult to prosecute the cases because the statute for driving under the influence is so complicated.
Because the statute for DUI is about 15 pages long - the statute for murder is only one sentence -- Stone said it is actually easier for him to try a murder case than a DUI case.
Tanner said the law has "handcuffed law enforcement," and said changes are needed to make it more enforceable.
"We at the Sheriff's Office do not condone people driving under the influence. It kills people," he said. "But it is hard for us to enforce a law that is full of technicalities. The law leans heavy on the side of the violator."
Stone agreed.
"I think the emphasis needs to be on law enforcement being able to prosecute their case," he said. "The intent was good ... but it is just too complicated.
"The bottom line is they've made it very difficult on law enforcement."
Gilham said the new legislation changes the portions law enforcement officials have criticized, and said the changes are "basically undoing what the Senate did" after the original bill was introduced in the House last year.
The bill is in subcommittee, and will have to go through the House and the Senate before passing, Gilham said, so now "the fight just begins" again.
Reporter Jennifer Moore can be reached at 837-5255, ext. 122, or jnmoore@lowcountrynow.com
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