As a California criminal defense lawyer who has defended DUI cases since the time of Moses, I enjoyed reading Wikipedia's entry for "driving under the influence."
Some items found there and randomly selected include:
* Norway introduced the world's first "per se" law in 1936. All 50 states in this country subsequently followed Norway's lead and all now have two categories of DUI offenses: the per se violation based on the amount of alcohol in your system (requiring no other proof of intoxication) and the other drunk driving violation (requiring independent proof, such as the testimony of a police office).
*Turkey has a limit of 0.05 for PASSENGER-LESS COMPACT CARS only; otherwise, it is 0.00% (as in zero).
*In this country California leads the way (of course) in bringing second degree murder charges if there is evidence of reckless indifference to the lives of others.
*Germany takes your license away automatically for one year if found driving with a blood count of 0.08% or higher and takes it away indefinitely if found driving with a blood count of 0.16% or higher--that it, until you pass a rigorous medical-psychological driver assessment test.
Showing posts with label DUI Defense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DUI Defense. Show all posts
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Marin's GI Jane DUI Case
The Marin County DA is taking GI Jane back to trial. Army reservist 'G.I. Jane' going back to court
Jane Parkhurst, the Army reservist who inspired the movie, G.I. Jane, ran her Hummer H2 off a West Marin highway and was arrested for a DUI in late 2006. The matter was tried and the jury deadlocked on one count while acquitted on the other.
In California, all DUIs are charged as two counts, one for driving while intoxicating and the other for driving with a BAC of .08% or over. In this case, the jury concluded it could not decide whether or not Ms. Parkhurst was driving drunk, but that she was not driving with an over-the-limit BAC.
The acquittal on the second count might be due to the fact that the jury believed Ms. Parkhurst claim that she did all her drinking after the accident, before being tested!
The Marin DA wants to re-try her on the first count only in that double jeopardy rules out a re-trial on the count for which she was acquitted.
Jane Parkhurst, the Army reservist who inspired the movie, G.I. Jane, ran her Hummer H2 off a West Marin highway and was arrested for a DUI in late 2006. The matter was tried and the jury deadlocked on one count while acquitted on the other.
In California, all DUIs are charged as two counts, one for driving while intoxicating and the other for driving with a BAC of .08% or over. In this case, the jury concluded it could not decide whether or not Ms. Parkhurst was driving drunk, but that she was not driving with an over-the-limit BAC.
The acquittal on the second count might be due to the fact that the jury believed Ms. Parkhurst claim that she did all her drinking after the accident, before being tested!
The Marin DA wants to re-try her on the first count only in that double jeopardy rules out a re-trial on the count for which she was acquitted.
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