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eBook details

• Title: Serious Facts Require Serious Charges: Evolving Methods to Prosecute DWI Offenders Who Kill (Driving While Intoxicated)
• Author : Journal of the National District Attorneys Association Prosecutor
• Release Date : January 01, 2007
• Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
• Pages : * pages
• Size : 287 KB

Description

WHEN AN INTOXICATED PERSON gets behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, there is always the potential for horrific results. The actual offense committed can range from a misdemeanor charge under a driving while intoxicated (DWI) statute where no one was seriously harmed to a felony charge for some type of manslaughter where someone was killed. (1) However, there are instances where a charge such as manslaughter may not fit the full nature of a crime that is more akin to murder. One such serious factual scenario is when a habitual DWI offender continues to drive and ultimately takes the life of another person by committing clearly dangerous acts on the roadway. Prosecuting these offenders under the felony murder statute is one method available to make the punishment range more appropriate for the facts of the case. Another method available to prosecutors in some states is a murder prosecution based on depraved indifference. This article will address important considerations under both of these theories. Consider the case of Mark Lomax, who had two previous convictions for DWI when he took the life of a six-year old child, Alexea Castillo, on March 23, 2002, on a busy Harris County road. (2) Harris County is the third-largest county in the nation (3) and encompasses most of the City of Houston, which is currently the fourth largest city. Lomax was driving recklessly on a state highway while under the influence of alcohol. After the crash, his blood alcohol level was tested at almost three times the 0.08 standard in existence at the time. Lomax fled from the hospital that obtained his blood sample. Castillo died in her mother's arms. Existing statutory law provided that the punishment range for a person in such a situation was from two to 20 years in prison under the intoxication manslaughter statute. (4) However, this range of punishment did not seem to fit the facts of the crime. A jury ultimately convicted Lomax of felony murder and assessed his punishment at 55 years in prison.

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