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Web posted Tuesday, June
10, 2003
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Editorial: Chalk up another win for DUI
lawyers
Carolina Morning News
Tracking the last-minute passage of the
state's new DUI law gives a great deal of insight
into the dysfunction that reigned during the 2003
General Assembly.
The bill could have
conceivably saved lives in the nation's second
most deadly state for drunken driving deaths.
Instead, it became a watered-down, unenforceable
excuse for the state to retain its federal highway
funding.
In short, it does nothing to get
drunken drivers off the state's roads.
A
thoughtful DUI bill was introduced in the House by
Rep. JoAnne Gilham, R-Hilton Head Island, two
years ago. That bill was finally addressed this
year, just in time to meet a deadline established
by the federal government, which wants states to
get serious about DUI laws.
The bill lowers
the "per se" limit for drunken driving, making it
a crime to drive with a blood alcohol content over
.08. The current limit is .10. ("Per se" means
that no evidence other than the results of a
properly obtained chemical test are required for
conviction.)
The House of Representatives
did the right thing and passed the bill. The
Senate hemmed and hawed, as it did on so many
issues this session, and passed a watered-down
version of the bill only minutes before the
legislators adjourned in their last session of the
year on Thursday.
Their version, however,
contains so many loopholes that "per se" drunken
driving will still be only a dream for the police
officers, deputies and highway patrol troopers who
do their best to serve and protect their
communities.
A good "per se" case, for
example, now requires "articulable suspicion,"
whatever that means. The new law, like the old,
does not apply in cases that arise out of traffic
roadblocks or diver's license checkpoints. There
are other loopholes, but you get the
idea.
Gilham summed it up nicely: "The DUI
attorneys won again."
The bill could be
revisited next year and fine-tuned, but that is
not likely. In the minds of the state's lawmakers,
this battle has been waged and those who oppose
tougher DUI laws have won.
We wonder how
they sleep at night.
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