Wisconsin may take a baby step today in its loose legal stance on DUI
A bill expected to be voted on today in the Wisconsin Assembly will if passed make what amounts to a slap on the wrist a slightly harder slap on the wrist in certain circumstances. While the bill is expected to pass, it falls way short of what Wisconsin and most other states are doing in terms of reducing the river of blood on their highways because of drunk drivers.
After passage, Wisconsin will still be the only state that does not criminalize first offense DUI under .15 Blood Alcohol content. Seems first time offenders will have to go so far as to injure or kill someone to be charged with so much as a misdemeanor. The one exception to that which we should refer to as the “Diane Schuler” exception is that it’s actually a misdemeanor of a child under the age of 16 is in the car at the time. BRAVO! Lessons from the tragedy on the Taconic learned all to slowly. 8 people die in one DUI “accident”, 4 of them children in the charge and in the car Diane Schuler was driving and they sense they need to actually make it a misdemeanor for first time offenders!
The bill also refuses to repeal Wisconsin’s prohibition on DUI checkpoints, even though such measures prove to be both a deterrent and perfectly legal in court challenges even up to and including challenges that make it to the Supreme Court under widely accepted guidelines followed by almost every state.
As it is in so many states, one has to be charged with DUI way too many times before a felony charge is applied. In this bill, Wisconsin changes that from the 5th offense to the 4th offense before felony charges apply. Do we really need to wait till the 4th offense to take a person’s clear recalcitrance under consideration? We wonder why so many die each year at the hands of drunk drivers; this is what’s known in police circles as “a clue”.
While it’s great that Wisconsin is taking this baby step today, and given the very slight changes to how they enable drunk drivers in their state, it will hopefully pass, the state clearly doesn’t get it. In our opinion, no state truly does.
Here’s a rundown of the changes this proposed law would bring:
- Make fourth-offense drunken driving a felony if the crime comes within five years of the third offense, tougher than the current standard of a fifth-offense felony.
- Require repeat drunken drivers and first-time offenders with a blood alcohol content of higher than .15 — nearly twice the legal limit of .08 — to install in their cars ignition interlock devices similar to breathalyzers that won’t allow a car to start if a person is drunk.
- Allow other counties to participate in a Winnebago County pilot program that allows second and third-time offenders to spend less time behind bars if they successfully complete treatment. Drivers can only use the option once. Drunken drivers who complete the Winnebago program reoffend at a rate of 4 percent, well below the 52.5 percent rate for similar offenders statewide, and the program saved the county $246,000 over two years, according to county figures provided by Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh.
- Require that third-time offenders be locked up immediately after sentencing.
- Make a first-time offense a misdemeanor if a child under 16 years of age is in the car.
So strange that Wisconsin had the GUTS to pass a primary seatbelt legislation this year, which is already in effect; yet they continue to wag their finger at potential murderers. No doubt because of this seatbelt legislation they will see a decline in DUI deaths, but they certainly don’t seem compelled to do anything about the vehicular homicide end of things.
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