New DUI Law in California

It's too little, too late. Not the law, but the time in a person's drunk driving career in which they FINALLY face appropriate penalties.

First, let me share a little about the law with you. At the prosecutors' discretion, if an intoxicated driver causes a fatal accident, they can be tried for second degree murder instead of the current manslaughter. My first problem with this is that we shouldn't leave something like this to the discretion of prosecutors UNTIL we have a fair justice system. If judges can be stripped of "discretion" in crack sentencing, then I'm sure prosecutors in this case can as well. Second, while I have no scientific statistics, my personal experience tells me that by the time a person is caught DUI, they have done it MANY times. Why would we wait until someone is dead before we appropriately punish this crime? If it were up to me, I would make everyone's first drunk driving a MANDATORY 30 day sentence. After all, nobody ever HAS to drink and drive. It's a bad and dangerous choice EVERY SINGLE TIME. This is a penalty stiff enough to deter and that's exactly what we need. Even a person who has the "disease" of alcoholism, who for whatever chemical changes have taken place in his brain cannot will him or herself not to drink, can choose not to drive. And if we are to consent that they've lost that control as well, then why would we punish them MORE harshly when they do it the fifth or sixth time, or even when they kill someone, if it's not a choice, then punishment would NEVER be appropriate. Of course smellier bull has never been proffered.

In my humble "bloginion", there is NEVER any excuse for DUI (okay, maybe while on a prescription medication that you didn't know impaired you), but with alcohol in particular, while there may be many reasons or excuses for drinking to excess, there is never a reason or excuse to drive while drunk.