Thread: New NC DWI Law may detect illegal aliens

Tough law backed on drunken driving


By John Fuquay
Staff writer
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RALEIGH — Drunken drivers would have a harder time avoiding charges and face tougher penalties upon conviction under a bill that could be sent to the governor this week.

The bill has passed in the House and Senate, but Senate changes last week must be agreed to by House members.

The bill would create offenses for serious injury and aggravated death by vehicle; increase jail and prison terms; give police, prosecutors and judges new guidelines that allow more trial evidence; and require a permit to buy a keg of beer.

“It tightens up a lot of things,” Fayetteville Police Chief Tom McCarthy said. “I don’t see any negative effects.”

The bill specifies that a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 is sufficient for conviction. Some judges have dismissed charges, ruling that 0.08 was the legal limit.

“That’s nice to see. It’s long overdue,” McCarthy said.

Dick Taylor, director of the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers, disagrees, saying it circumvents rules of evidence.

“It makes it an offense if intoxication is 0.08 without any requirement of impairment,” he said. In some cases, he said, certain types of evidence could be admissible in a trial without the usual requirements of fact or expertise.

“It’s not clear how you’d have an opportunity to make a defense,” he said.

Other changes involve new definitions and penalties for accidents that injure or kill.

Current law makes felony death by vehicle an offense. The new law would create an offense for felony serious injury by vehicle and aggravated offenses for repeat offenders who injure or kill. It also says the punishment for repeat felony death by vehicle would be the same as second-degree murder.

Penalties currently imposed can be as little as a year in jail, but new penalties range from about two years to life in prison, depending on prior convictions.

‘Long overdue’
Nancy Chappell is a former Fayetteville resident who lives in Charlotte. Her brother, Fred Proctor, was killed by a drunk driver in 1990. She said the proposed laws are good news.

“I think it’s long overdue,” she said.

Proctor graduated from Terry Sanford High School in 1972 and grew up in the Tallywood neighborhood. He was 36 when he and his fiancee were hit by Tyron Daly Price in Greene County. The fiancee survived.

Daly, now 40, was charged in 1990 with second-degree murder in Proctor’s death. He pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to up to six years but served 25 months.

Daly is in trouble again. He is free on $100,000 bail after being charged last year in the drunken driving deaths of two people in Martin County. He now faces two second-degree murder charges.

“I am pleased that North Carolina legislators recognize that choosing (to drive drunk) is a mistake that you don’t want to make in North Carolina ever again, and that repeat offenders will from here forth pay consequences as they never have before,” Chappell said.

Kimberly Overton, the traffic safety prosecutor with the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, a state agency, said she could not comment about Daly but said charges and punishments allowed in the bill would specifically address similar offenses.

“North Carolina has felony death by vehicle, but we had no other statutes that were specific to injuries by motor vehicles or aggravated death by motor vehicle,” Overton said.

Prosecutors tried most fatal DWI cases as involuntary manslaughter, “which is a square peg in a round hole. ... This statute provides specific charges with specific penalties.”

Prosecutors also would be able to use — and judges would be bound to accept — reliable field sobriety test results, such as the reaction of a driver’s eyes or vehicle-speed testimony from an expert crash-scene investigator. Such evidence is currently difficult to admit or is not allowed.

Overton said such testimony would still have to meet burden-of-proof requirements.

The law also would require people who buy a keg of beer to obtain a permit from their local Alcoholic Beverage Commission board. The provision is intended to make it easier for police to catch underage drinkers.

Chief McCarthy said some of the changes will be helpful, such as augmenting breath tests with field tests, while some are already in place, such as procedures for roadside checkpoints. Other changes, however, may take time to get used to.

For example, a new provision would require police to check immigration status of suspects arrested for DWI and report illegal immigrants to federal officials.

“I’m not sure how we’re going to implement that,” he said. “Sometimes we call and try to get that information, and we’re told it might be next week. I know where they’re coming from, I’m just not sure how practical it will be.”

Staff writer John Fuquay can be reached at fuquayj@fayettevillenc.com or (919)828-7641.

http://www.fayettevillenc.com/article?id=237178

For example, a new provision would require police to check immigration status of suspects arrested for DWI and report illegal immigrants to federal officials.

Now if the feds will come when called we'll be getting somewhere.