Texas woman gets life sentence for 6th DUI conviction

they should have sent this woman with the emergency services for a few months scrapping up bodies after smashes might have woken her up a bit .

seeing children dead might have done more than any a.a meeting ever could .

but no lets burden the tax payer again

reply to post by devildogUSMC


I have mixed emotions on this. On one hand, I say "good" namely due to the fact that she can no longer endanger innocent drivers and pedestrians. But on the other hand, I think a life sentence might be a little over the top. (Than again, what happens when she continues to drink and drive and end up killing someone?)

Alcoholism is a disease, but when do we draw the line? What if she isn't an alcoholic, and instead is just a person with poor moral judgement? (Which makes it even worse.) How about a three strikes you're out deal? First time, a hefty fine. Second time, a year in prison. Third time, five years and a five year revocation of the persons drivers license? If they continue, than maybe more drastic measures can be taken, like ten years in jail and forget about ever getting a drivers license again.

But will that really work? Some people will never learn and continue to not only put their lives in danger but others as well?

My uncle was an alcoholic and drove drunk. He lost an eye in an accident and nearly killed his fiance and best friend. So this is coming from someone who envisioned his favorite uncle behind bars.

hmm, i could almost support this but i dunno..it would likley only be a matter of time before she does kill someone however life in prison is not really proper considering all kinds of scum who get far less.
how could this type of thing be dealt with? any ideas?
she can be banned from driving and they do have breathalyzer devices that can be installed in her car but certianly possible for her to drive anyway and/or access other vehicles..tough one drinking and driving can have the most serious of concequenses

reply to post by opethPA


I am sorry for your friend and their mother and that drunk driver should get life in prison or even the death penalty. This woman who hurt nobody should not get life in prison.

reply to post by opethPA


No one said anything about giving her a hug. She obviously needs help. However a white woman with a competent lawyer would be in a treatment facility right now. Just saying...

You are letting your emotions interfere with logic and your humanity,

opethPA

devildogUSMC
reply to post by n3mesis

 

I firmly do not believe in making examples out of human beings.

My friends mother that committed suicide after her only son was killed by the drunk driver i mentioned..what was she an example of?

perhaps we should go hug this lady and say "its ok, you only committed a misdemeanor because you didn't hurt anyone"

i see where your coming from i really do but how many drivers drive dangerously every day and just out of sheer luck they aren,t killing someone?i think if you jailed all the drivers who did that then half the worlds population would be in jail,dangerous driving is just as lethal as drink driving.

devildogUSMC
reply to post by opethPA

 

I am sorry for your friend and their mother and that drunk driver should get life in prison or even the death penalty. This woman who hurt nobody should not get life in prison.

I had a chance to think about this and calm down..

1. 20 years in jail , parole in 10 if she can stay sober that long
2. no driving privileges for the rest of her life, not that it would matter with a coward like this.
3. treatment for being a repeat alcoholic and a criminal(this is me having humanity)
4. Weekly random sobriety checks for the first year then gradually reducing to monthly after that.
5. public service attending the funeral of every innocent man/woman/child killed by a drunk for a year.
6. If she gets arrested again, so a 7th time, for drunk driving then she never leaves jail again.

that seems about fair for someone that willing chose to drive drunk 6 times.

Humanity? How humane was the drunk that directly ruined 2 families? Maybe I should have taken pics last night from the ER of the hospital I work in..the one where we had a car load of 4 kids come in all under the age of 20 and all in critical condition because a drunk driver hit them..is that humane?

This woman is a danger behind the wheel of a car and should never drive again. She repeatedly broke the law and she should be incarcerated for a period of time. However, that period of time should not be the rest of her life. She is a human being who is obviously an alcoholic and she needs help. Maybe she can choose between a longer prison term or parole on the condition that she is to be prescribed the drug antebuse and is somehow monitored to make sure she takes it?

I have little respect for those you get behind a wheel while impaired and put others at risk. And I know we're all human and sometimes our judgement lapses, so a single DUI I can partly understand, given you learn your lesson. But five or six? That's completely selfish and irresponsible behavior and she's putting many others at risk simply because she doesn't appear to care all that much.

Give her prison time. Give her more than five years. However, life in prison is too severe. I'd like to think we can teach people lessons about drinking and driving. Giving someone a life sentence is literally admitting defeat.

How about bar her from never being able to operate a motor vehicle again, after she finishes a 5-10 year prison term? Sounds fair to me. We give murderers, rapists, child molesters, etc, second chances. Someone who didn't actually kill someone is further down on the pecking order. I'm not endorsing drinking and driving, I have little tolerance for it, but I'm also not an idiot and like to apply a little logic. There's far worse you can do and people do do every day, serve their time and get another chance. I also have little faith in our prison system to rehabilitate anyone.

I'd like to think as humans we're better than tossing the key away and giving a life sentence to someone with an alcohol and judgement problem. This isn't some mass murderer or child rapist. Texas just admitted they are unable to even attempt to rehabilitate a woman with a drinking problem. They really couldn't come up with a better solution? Not surprised actually. Same state which brought us the Bush family and Mr. Rick "boots on the ground" Perry.

reply to post by MysticPearl


Eloquently put. I couldn't have said it better myself. I wholly agree with you.

reply to post by opethPA


I don't question the fact that drunk driving is horribly irresponsible. That is not the point. In the last two years 5 teenagers from my son's high school were killed in alcohol related accidents. However, these were at the hands of other teenagers. Each incident was devastating to the families and the communities. Do the kids that were the perps deserve prison for a period of years. In my heart of hearts, I don't think so.

I have a really good girlfriend who when she was 19 years old got into a wreck that killed her very best friend. That was back in the day when blood alcohol was 1.5 before you were considered drunk driving. She was never arrested but she has never been the same. Her life is a prison, I guess you could say.

This woman had to be 17 years old when she at least had her first DUI. The article is not clear on how and when she received the other 5 but we do know she just received her sixth. We don't know what her blood alcohol levels were? If her blood counts were near a 1.5, I agree she needs to do some jail time. Then she is just being reckless and is a danger to society. Maybe 5 years and a mandatory in patient alcohol treatment program for at least a year.

reply to post by MysticPearl

but how can you prevent someone from driving..easy to bar someone but they can just hop into a car and drive right? she may of been restricted from driving already
im just putting it out there i dont support life in prison

LMAO at the liberal replies in this thread!

First, even if she was 17 at the first offense, vehicular offenses are not subject to juvenile courts.

Second, how many DUI's does one have to have before a liberal draws the line? Personally, I think she had 4 too many. First one - shame on her. Second one - shame on the legal system for letting her slide. Third onward - she obviously has no self control and no respect for the legal system, and no respect for the life and welfare of others.

I would be very, very surprised if she had a valid drivers license during her last arrest. Texas estimates that approx. 25% of drivers on the road at any time are not licensed or insured. Which leads me to another point, after that many DUI's, it would be virtually impossible for her to get car insurance. So not only was she jeopardizing the lives of all of the other vehicle occupants she crossed paths with, but they had no legal recourse to sue her or have her insurance pay for any injuries that may have sufficed from her recklessness.

Jail is the only recourse for the legal system at this point. Taking away her license and giving her fines from DUI's obviously hasn't been a big enough deterrent. Should the legal system just keep letting her get off until she kills innocent people. Drunk driving is not a victimless crime, not by a long shot. Alcoholics are some of the most selfish people out there, that is why they wallow in their booze-filled cesspools of self-pity. Maybe jail will straighten her out, but for sure it will keep her from reoffending for a while.

devildogUSMC
reply to post by n3mesis

 

I firmly do not believe in making examples out of human beings.

how is this making an example out of someone? i mean.. God forbid, a family member was killed by a drunk driver and that person was given a year with time served and never spent a day in jail.. i don't know about you but i'd be screaming for the death penalty. unrealistic, yes but put yourself in the place of people who lost family members.

i fear this happening every single time my family leaves the house.

as for the drug thing, yes that is very unrealistic but the people who use is why there is a drug problem, it's 2013 and it's safe to say that 99% of drug rehab is a joke at best and mainly used as a way to get out of legal problems and we all know it. the only way this helps is if that person actually wants to quit.

cut off the head and the snake will die.

i myself had people in my life, really close friends go from really smart, ambitious, motivated professionals to someone that if you didn't know them you'd cross the street in order to avoid getting anywhere near them and it's heartbreaking to say the least because as hard as you try to help, if they're not ready, you will suffer heartbreak over and over. no i don't want to see them in prison but it can be the most effective rehabilitation around.

this can also backfire in a huge way, i know but at the lowest point of most addicts it's extreme measures that becomes the last resort.

reply to post by rimjaja


Why does your argument have to include "liberals". There are many conservatives that drive drunk. In fact I could use up all my characters if I started posting "conservative" people that have been convicted of the same thing.

It is always the "liberals" fault. Every single deficit in society can be attributed to "liberals".

What state do you live in? I want to check out your federal contributions versus the ones your State supplies.

reply to post by GrantedBail


Yeah, that is what I thought. You are probably from one of those welfare states that suck off of the productive states in this country.

As a former EMT that has scraped off the side of the road the aftermath of a drunk driver, and as a former ER orderly that has put his share of victims of drunk drivers in body bags, yet the drunk driver walks away with scrapes and bruises, when is it enough? How many times? 6? 60? 600?
One of these days, she's going to kill someone. Telling her she can't drive anymore isn't enough. Telling her not to drink anymore is not enough. What do you tell the family of her first victim? "Sorry, she had x many DUIs before this, but didn't kill anyone,"
In this woman's case, drastic measures NEED to be taken to prevent a tragic loss of life due to her actions. Left alone, she WILL KILL SOMEONE. It's just a matter of time.

opethPA

devildogUSMC
reply to post by n3mesis

 

I firmly do not believe in making examples out of human beings.

My friends mother that committed suicide after her only son was killed by the drunk driver i mentioned..what was she an example of?

perhaps we should go hug this lady and say "its ok, you only committed a misdemeanor because you didn't hurt anyone"

Isn't suicide a crime in nearly every state...maybe they should have put her body on display " as an example".

You have a right to your opinion. As someone who actually did have a couple of drinks and waited and abstained to make sure I was safe, was arrested for dui being .004 over the legal limit. I wasn't swerving...I had let my friend out on a side road to piss so he wouldn't pee in my car and was pulled over for suspicious behavior. I took the victim impact panels, jumped through all of the hoops. Call me what you will. If someone truly BELIEVES in something like you do, I know I'm not going to convince you of anything.
My point being...not everyone arrested for dui is a crazed bloodthirsty motorist with poor judgement. And yes...I have lost very close friends to both drunk drivers but I have Compassion and it helps me heal better than vengeance and hatred. I am sorry for your losses and wished I didn't have to be so dramatic in the opening of this post, but laws are laws...

reply to post by devildogUSMC


Drinking alcohol and driving is (as we all know) not only dangerous to others but to ones self as well.

This woman (in my opinion) needs to have her license taken away permanently; she should be legally forced to go into a 90 day (at least) alcohol treatment center; where she can get therapy and find out why she is a drunk who participates in dangerous behaviors.

Apparently...she got her first dui 17 years ago when she was 27; sometimes it takes a long time before a person wakes up and realizes their very serious mistakes.

I think (life in prison) is harsh...and I think in this case the sentence she got is wrong. Thankfully she has not killed anyone.

Again...I think she should be court ordered to go to a treatment facility and have her driver's license permanently taken away. Obviously...the woman needs help.

reply to post by devildogUSMC


that's a moronic sentence. The US sounds likes a retard place at times.