Drunk Drivers Who Kill Receive Lenient Sentences
You would think that with all the laws regarding drunk driving and convictions, judge's would use the state sentencing guidelines when it comes to prison time for all offenders. That's not happening in many places across the country. In Minneapolis, for example, a news paper investigation revealed that drunk drivers received less jail time than what the law dictates. This also incuded drunk drivers who fled the scene of a fatal accident or had a history of repeated drunk driving arrests.
According to the Pioneer Press: "If you're on the roadway, and you're drunk, and you kill someone, your chances of going to prison for any length of time are pretty remote," said Chief Deputy David Bellows of the Dakota County sheriff's office, who lost his mother to a drunken driver in 1981. "To me, it's incredible how society de-emphasizes death on the roadway."
It's happened again and again, and it leaves the families of victims outraged.
At her sentencing, Tina Laray Williams tearfully admitted that she caused the death of Erminia Carvajal, who was five months pregnant when Williams rear-ended her, killing both Carvajal and her unborn fetus. Instead of the expected penalty of four years in a state prison, Ramsey County District Judge Salvador Rosas sentenced Williams to two years in a county workhouse.
Bearing a blood-alcohol level of 0.23 percent - nearly three times the legal limit - 18-year-old Joshua Lofquist caused an accident that killed one of his best friends, Erik Marwick. In October 2004, a St. Louis County district judge sentenced Lofquist to one year in a corrections center, five years of probation and 200 hours of community service.
After crashing his car, a drunken Nicholas David Brain left his front-seat passenger to die and ran away to flag a passing vehicle. Instead of asking the driver to call 911, he asked her to give him a ride and pretend she was his girlfriend so he could elude police. Recently, Dakota County District Judge Martha Simonett sentenced Braun to a year in jail. He's expected to serve eight months before being released on probation.
As with Braun, few drunken drivers who kill receive anything close to four years. In Minnesota, most never go to state prison.
In 2003, Scott County Sheriff's Deputy Jon Niemann was killed when a drunk driver crossed the center median on Interstate 494 in Plymouth and crashed into him. The 37-year-old left behind a wife and two sons.
Niemann's family was outraged when Hennepin County District Judge Diana Eagon sentenced the driver, 21-year-old Jason R. Reese, to a year in county jail and 10 years of probation.
In explaining the sentence, Eagon cited Reese's youth, his remorse and amenability to probation. He wound up serving eight months on work release.
"He was allowed to go out in the beginning to look for a job, and once he got one, they let him out to work," said Lorrie Niemann-Pederson, Jon Niemann's widow.
"My 14-year-old son has a lot of anger issues with what happened," she said. "It's more like he's the one that has to live with the penalty than Mr. Reese. (My son is) a ballplayer and his dad used to coach his team. He and his dad were very close. It's a void that will be always be there."
But such sentences are far from uncommon. In Dakota County, 10 of the 16 adults convicted of criminal vehicular homicide since 1995 have received sentences that are less than recommended state guidelines. Four never saw the inside of a state prison, spending less than a year in county jail. Another two were given less than six months in jail, but later violated probation and went to jail anyway.
Only one defendant, Thomas George Condon, got the statutory minimum of 10 years in prison. That was after his long history of drunken driving had claimed the lives of two people in seven years.
"It is evidence of a systemwide problem, a statewide problem," said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom. "The sentences being handed down for even the most serious cases, where deaths occur, do not adequately represent the seriousness of the crimes."
Dakota County is not alone. A report by the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines commission shows that judges every year issue "downward departures" from state guidelines in at least half of all criminal vehicular homicide cases - as many as 65 percent in 2004.
"I think part of the challenge that family and law enforcement and prosecutors face in these cases is the attitude, 'Well, it was just a driving accident,' " said Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar. "We see it (instead) as an intentional decision to get drunk, or get high on drugs, and go out and drive a car."
In explaining their reasons, the most common explanation from judges is that they felt the defendant was amenable to treatment or probation, often based on pre-sentence findings of probation officers.
Records from the Guidelines Commission show that most of the defendants had clean driving records and expressed remorse, factors judges also took into account.
"When people rack up a criminal history and have been involved in the criminal process time and time again, the idea of sending them off to prison doesn't bother many judges," said Judge Ed I. Lynch, assistant chief judge in Dakota County. "They think that's the type of person that prison is meant for.
"But when people face commitment for a sole offense it's a difficult area. Most of these people don't have a history with the justice system."
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