Crackdown on drunken driving urged

Kirsten Searer

Tuesday, April 5, 2005 | 11:11 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Nevada would crack down on repeat drunken drivers under three bills heard today in the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Assembly Bill 256 aims to punish "the worst of the worst." It would charge drivers with vehicular manslaughter if they have had at least three prior convictions for drunk driving and they then kill someone while driving drunk.

The penalty would be stiff: Imprisonment for life with the possibility of parole after 10 years served or for a definite term of 25 years in prison.

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said harsh punishment would fit the crime because "it is no longer (just) a mistake driving drunk" after three prior offenses.

She said she considered imposing the penalty after one or two offenses but decided against it.

"We decided after debate to start by making it for the worst of the worst, somebody where anybody looking at the facts of the case, anyone looking at the record, says, 'No more, no more. This person is a menace and they deserve the harshest penalty there is,' " Buckley said.

The bill also would establish a "homicide by vessel" stating that people who have operated a boat while drunk at least three prior times could receive the same punishment if they kill someone while drunk.

Another bill, Assembly Bill 421, would make a third drunken driving offense a felony, meaning they could serve between two years and 15 years in prison and pay a fine of between $2,000 and $5,000.

Right now, people are not charged with a felony until their fourth offense within seven years.

A person could be convicted of misdemeanor DUI every three and a half years for a lifetime and never get a more strict penalty than a fine and a night in jail, said the bill's sponsor, Assemblyman Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas.

"What we're trying to do here is catch those people and give them a stiffer penalty before they kill someone," he said.

The bill is supported by police and district attorneys associations.

"DUIs are really the only law in Nevada when we tell someone, you get to your fourth offense, you go back to a misdemeanor," said Bruce Nelson, a deputy district attorney for the vehicular crimes unit in Clark County.

But even if a person killed someone while driving drunk, they could serve the six years required under current law and then start over in the system, Conklin said.

After getting out of jail, "you could go straight to the bar, drink yourself to oblivion and when you drive away, you get a misdemeanor ticket," Conklin said.

Conklin introduced a similar bill in the 2003 session that he said died in the Ways and Means Committee because the state estimated it would cost $4,000 to implement the bill.

"I guess the question becomes, is that too much of a price to pay to maybe prevent a few deaths?" Conklin asked.

Several mothers testified in support of the bills, including Judy Jacaboni, whose 22-year-old daughter, Michelle, was killed in 1990 by a drunk driver. After serving more than 10 years in jail, the woman was convicted again of driving drunk and charged with a misdemeanor, Jacaboni said.

Even after she turned up at the woman's court hearing to complain, the offender received only six months in jail, Jacaboni said.

Another bill, Assembly Bill 550, would require people convicted of drunk driving to install a device in their car to test their breath before they turn on their car. It would also require tests periodically while driving.