DRUNK driving is one of those sobering topics that is difficult to be taken lightly. Most college students know at least someone who has a problem with habitually driving under the influence, frequently a high school acquaintance, while an even more pitiable cohort may know of a friend who has been involved in an accident where alcohol was involved. Promising young lives can be snuffed out in an instant when metal, speed and a poorly made decision all collide in a freak accident of fate. Yet in Virginia, DUI laws have been too loose for too long. This week, standing on the steps of the Norfolk Circuit Courthouse, Lt. Gov. Timothy Kaine announced a new proposal that would toughen the Commonwealth's drunk driving laws, especially for repeat offenders. This proposal will close gaping loopholes in the Code of Virginia and offer stronger mandatory sentencing, moving Virginia's DUI jurisprudence in the right direction.
Kaine's proposal came on the heels of a high-profile Norfolk DUI case involving a repeat offender who had taken advantage of loopholes in the Commonwealth statute in order to avoid prison time. Following three prior convictions, Roy Lee Everett killed a high school honor student in an attempted hit and run in which alcohol was involved. According to Norfolk Commonwealth's attorney John R. Doyle, III, Everett had surrendered his driving privileges after previous DUI convictions, so he had nothing to lose by refusing to take a blood or breath test. That refusal denied prosecutors evidence of his intoxication that might have led to a murder charge. The current law in Virginia provides that any individual may decline to submit to a breathalyzer test but then must automatically surrender their license for one year.
Kaine announced that he will propose legislation in the January session of the General Assembly to close these loopholes and strengthen the mandatory sentencing of those convicted. Kaine proposed a mandatory one-year jail term for motorists convicted of drunken driving three times within a 10-year period. He also wants a one-year jail sentence for drivers who refuse a breathalyzer test after two previous drunken driving convictions in a decade. These penalties would be designed to give convicted drunk drivers pause before getting back into an automobile after any level of alcoholic intake. Drivers would no longer be at liberty to refuse breathalyzers to avoid more stringent prosecution.
Some legislators, such as Del. Robert Hurt, R-Chatham, believe that a mandatory one-year limit will exacerbate an existing overcrowded situation in the Commonwealth's prisons. This plan would cost money -- a difficult sell in a time of budget cuts and fiscal woes. However, when one examines the cost of prosecuting repeat offender cases, putting drivers away early may well save the justice system money in the long run.
Kaine argued that stricter penalties will help reduce the largest "violent crime" in the country. It would specifically target those repeat offenders who have been through the criminal justice system once and know how to work it to their advantage. Even if the proposal would increase costs at the courthouse, the dividends in Virginia's communities are decidedly worth the expense. According to the Oct. 13 Virginian-Pilot ("Drunken driver is sentenced to 14 years in prison for fatality"), repeat offenders in both Norfolk and neighboring Virginia Beach have received much tougher sentencing since the Everett case received such wide publicity. These events indicate that public dissatisfaction with the current system supports a de jure decision by the General Assembly to replace to de facto sentencing imposed by Hampton Roads judges in the short term.
Drunk driving kills. Poor decisions made in passing tears the fabric of communities and ruins lives. The invincible adolescent, careless college student or irresponsible adult is transformed into a murderer in the flash of an eye. Those who would commit such acts habitually, after enduring the emotionally excruciating process once, deserve repercussions greater than currently demanded by the law. They must be removed from Virginia's streets and highways. Kaine's proposals deserve the utmost attention from lawmakers this January.
(Preston Lloyd's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at plloyd@cavalierdaily.com.)
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