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Report: Conflict of interest in DUI laws

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Legislators who work as defense lawyers have too much influence on South Carolina's drunken-driving laws, according to a 2002 report about the state's laws and procedures.

The report's team leader, Judge G. Michael Witte of Indiana, said he was struck by a "very prominent criminal defense attorney presence" in the S.C. General Assembly.

Of the 170-member General Assembly, 33, or about 20 percent, are lawyers. In 2005, the rate was 22 percent, the eighth-highest in the nation. The U.S. average was

17 percent, according to the Ameri-can Bar Association.

One of South Carolina's lawyer-legislators is Rep. Jim Harrison, R-Richland. He said most of the attorneys, including himself, either don't practice criminal law or do very little.

But Harrison, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said criminal defense lawyers "tend to be strategically placed" on key committees. Bills dealing with criminal laws, including drunken-driving, live or die in the committee and its counterpart in the Senate.

He noted that Doug Jennings, D-Marlboro; Murrell Smith,

R-Sumter; and Todd Rutherford,

D-Richland, are criminal defense lawyers on his committee.

Recommendations cited in the report that have not been met include:

• Banning police officers from serving as prosecutors.

• Requiring magistrates and municipal judges to be lawyers.

• Making probation services available in DUI cases in magistrate and municipal courts, not just in circuit courts. That would allow the lower-court judges to order treatment as part of sentences and monitor offenders during the probation period.

The report was given to then-Gov. Jim Hodges and the legislature and presented at a 2003 symposium of law enforcement, treatment and education professionals, though it was not released to the public.

The S.C. Department of Public Safety's Office of Highway Safety requested the assessment. Director Max Young said in a prepared statement that his office "understood and agreed with the vast majority of recommendations."

He said the report was used to form what is now known as the S.C. Impaired Driving Prevention Council. Representatives from private and public service agencies, the judiciary, law enforcement and the legislature serve on the council.

Five subcommittees have met on a "regular basis since its inception," Young said. The legislative subcommittee is working on drunken-driving law revisions to be submitted to the General Assembly next year.