State’s high court says records OK to prove prior OUI
By TOM BENNER Patriot Ledger State House Bureau BOSTON - Prosecutors say it will be easier to convict a drunken-driving suspect now that a key provision of Melanie’s Law has been upheld by the Supreme Judicial Court.
The state’s highest court ruled yesterday that court records are sufficient to prove a defendant had a prior drunken-driving record.
In the past, an arresting officer had to be in court to testify about prior convictions. That was difficult or impossible in some cases that were years or decades old.
‘‘It certainly will allow prosecutors to do their job as the Legislature intended,’’ Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating said of the Supreme Judicial Court ruling. ‘‘I don’t think anyone’s rights are hindered at all.’’
The law was passed last year to target repeat drunken drivers.
In a case that came out of Salem District Court, Matthew J. Maloney, fighting his fourth drunken-driving conviction in Peabody, challenged the new law. He argued that court records are not always reliable and that the identities of individuals with the same names could be mistaken.
The high court did not agree with Maloney’s argument. Nor did backers of Melanie’s Law.
‘‘Every time some guy named Smith comes up in court, we should throw it out?’’ Ron Bersani of Marshfield asked. ‘‘That’s ridiculous.’’
Melanie’s Law is named for Bersani’s granddaughter, 13-year-old Melanie Powell of Marshfield, who was killed by a repeat drunken driver in 2003.
The high court said in its ruling that certified court records are sufficient to determine that a defendant has prior convictions.
Before Melanie’s Law, prosecutors had to find the arresting officers from previous court cases to testify as witnesses to prove that a defendant had a prior drunken-driving conviction.
Prosecutors said it was often difficult to locate an arresting officer from a previous drunken-driving case, often in another part of the state or country.
Copyright 2006 The Patriot Ledger Transmitted Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Posted by: Delta784
End result - The district courts will have to come up with more creative ways to bag OUI cases.
Posted by: mtc
Yeah - it's called a bench trial.
Posted by: Buford T
Delta, that would NEVER happen at Q.D.C........
Posted by: ferus fidelitas
wait til we have a democ rat governor and a democ rat state legislature... they will make sure that Melanie's Law is watered down...
Posted by: adroitcuffs
Two words... Implied Consent. Persons suspected of OUI need to be required to submit to a chemical test, even if the chemical test needs to be done against their will. These convictions need to have an accounting of the BAC. Melanie's law is good but it's just not enough.
Posted by: kwflatbed
MELANIE’S LEGACY: New law has had an effect on repeat drunken drivers
By JULIE JETTE The Patriot Ledger
One year after it passed in an epic campaign, Melanie’s Law is making its presence felt from the barroom to the courtroom to the county jails.
The law, named for Marshfield teenager Melanie Powell, who was killed by a repeat drunken driver in 2003, makes it easier to prosecute repeat offenders with multiple offenses and stiffens the penalties.
According to state figures, auto accidents and deaths are on pace to be rarer than last year: there should be nearly 12 percent fewer highway deaths and 38 percent fewer auto accidents overall.
While figures for alcohol-related deaths are not yet available, there were no other substantial changes to traffic laws that would explain the drop.
The hope of Melanie’s family and other advocates of the law was that it would convince more people to not drive if they’ve had too much to drink. While it’s hard to measure what people don’t do, there is evidence the law is helping to change attitudes.
Ted Mahoney, chief investigator for the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, says his inspectors are hearing more caution on the part of bar patrons when they conduct undercover inspections.
‘‘We’ve been in an undercover capacity and heard people at the bar not order another drink because they were concerned about being stopped on the way home and arrested,’’ Mahoney said. ‘‘On various occasions we’ve heard them mention the new law. I think it’s had a tremendous effect on people’s decision to have another drink or two.’’
Ron Bersani of Marshfield, Melanie Powell’s grandfather and a major proponent of the law, said he’s pleased with its performance in its first year.
‘‘If I were rating it, I’d give it an A. It has unquestionably made a difference,’’ he said. ‘‘The law, first of all, has energized police, and they feel that they finally have some tools to go out there and make a difference.’’
This past week, the state Supreme Judicial Court handed down two rulings that will make it easier for prosecutors to enforce Melanie’s Law. The rulings upheld prosecutors’ ability to use certified court records to prove prior drunken driving convictions-. Previously, prosecutors had to find arresting officers to testify to convictions that could be years old.
Barbara Harrington, executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said she’s particularly pleased with the portion of the law that requires repeat offenders to install interlock ignition devices in any car they drive.
The devices keep drivers from starting their cars if their blood-alcohol content registers higher than .02 percent in an instant breath test. The state’s legal limit is .08.
Repeat offenders must have the devices installed for two years after their licenses are restored, and repeat offenders who get hardship licenses that allow them to drive for 12 hours a day must have them installed.
Some states require even first-time drunken driving offenders to install the devices in their cars. But Harrington said the requirement’s strength is that the program is overseen uniformly by the Registry of Motor Vehicles rather than by judges adding it to offenders’ sentences.
‘‘They put in place one of the most failsafe interlock programs in the country,’’ Harrington said.
She said in other states, judges can tailor the conditions of a drunken driver’s use of the ignition device.
One of the strictest portions of the program: In the final six months that drivers must use the ignition lock, they must have a completely clean record, meaning the restoration of their license will be delayed if the device records any alcohol on a driver’s breath.
Other factors
Factors outside Melanie’s Law may also be working to reduce the accident rate.
Unrelated to Melanie’s Law, Harrington said, is a nationwide and statewide push for more sobriety checkpoints. In Massachusetts, she said, state troopers will hold more sobriety checkpoints in 2006 than they have in the past 20 years combined.
While the exact location of the checkpoints isn’t usually revealed ahead of time, Harrington said State Police try to publicize the general location.
‘‘If people know there are checkpoints or suspect there’s going to be checkpoints, the beauty is it makes people stay off the roads,’’ she said.
Stephen Jones, a lawyer who defends people charged with drunken driving, says he has seen an increased caseload that may have something to do with the new law.
He said two factors may be influencing more defendants to fight charges rather than pleading guilty: The fact that in 2003, the state extended the so-called look-back period on a person’s driving record from 10 years to lifetime. A person who had a drunken driving conviction in 1990 would not have been charged as a second-time offender if caught again in 2000, for example, but now prosecutors can examine the driver’s lifelong record.
The increased penalties of Melanie’s Law - particularly the license suspensions - mean that subsequent offenses come with a higher cost.
‘‘People just can’t afford to have these things on their history, and where the license implications are so dramatic, most people are fighting them where they might not have before,’’ Jones said.
Norfolk County Sheriff Michael Bellotti says that while he supports the law, he believes it is contributing to crowding in the Norfolk County jail.
He said of the 400 inmates the jail has at any given time, at least a quarter are drunken drivers. He said the jail’s research department is going to try to look at whether there is a direct relationship between the passage of the law and the increase in drunken driver inmates.
‘‘We’re seeing them earlier and we’re keeping them longer,’’ he said.
Still, Bellotti said, he believes the law is deterring some people who might have given less thought to drinking and driving in the past.
‘‘It creates a fear factor for the person who may not have ended up in jail because of drunk driving (in past years),’’ he said.
‘‘There’s a greater awareness about the penalties for drunk driving,’’ he added. ‘‘There was always a sense, you’ve got a guy who was fairly successful in life and he had one or two (drunk driving offenses) from a long time ago and he was in no danger of being incarcerated-. That’s changed.’’
Some backlash
Harrington and Bersani say they’ve seen one disturbing trend in the year since the law’s passage: judges reducing the number of offenses with which a defendant is charged.
Except in the case of an injury crash, the law allows for jail time only for a third or subsequent offense.
In a Patriot Ledger review of 106 repeat-offender cases, six of the 44 drivers who were convicted had their charges reduced. Three were reduced to a second-offense, allowing two of them to avoid jail time.
Harrington said she believes there are some working in the criminal justice system who may feel the penalties of the new law are too harsh.
‘‘Now that the penalties have been stiffened, there’s even more resistance,’’ she said, ‘‘and that resistance can go all the way down to the policeman who’s doing the patrol.’’
Time in jail
Of 106 court cases reviewed by The Patriot Ledger involving repeat offenders during the past year:
44 resulted in convictions
7 ended with acquittals
55 cases are pending
Of those convicted:
34 went to jail
10 were given probation or a suspended sentence
Of those serving time:
23 months was the average sentence for a fifth or subsequent offense
10 months was the average for third or fourth offenses
4 years imposed on an 11-time offender arrested in Braintree was the longest sentence
3½ years was imposed on a two-time offender because he seriously injured a young boy in Quincy
Copyright 2006 The Patriot Ledger Transmitted Saturday, October 28, 2006
Posted by: Delta784
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buford T
Delta, that would NEVER happen at Q.D.C........
Yeah, right. I think they get an apology and a box lunch for their troubles.
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