Texas Law is Catching up with Habitual Drunk Drivers

Austin, TX (Law Firm Newswire) December 13, 2016 – A 64-year-old Texas man was sent to jail for 99 years to keep the community safe from him habitually driving while drunk.

Courts do not issue sentences like this one often, they prefer to allow DWI offenders to redeem themselves through education, community service and other approaches such as using an ignition interlock device. However, occasionally a case comes along where the prosecutor asks for a very long sentence to keep someone off the roads permanently.

Recently a man on his eighth DWI conviction was handed a 99-year jail sentence at the behest of the Hays County prosecutor who asked the jury for the sentence to allow everyone to sleep at night. The jury complied. Texas courts are expecting that this type of a lengthy sentence was not the first of its kind and it will not be the last.

For example, one convicted driver who got six life-sentences after his sixth conviction. He killed two and severely injured a third. Another, after his ninth conviction, was handed a life sentence as well. A life sentence also went to a Montgomery County man on his tenth DWI. “The underlying concern is not just that habitual drunk drivers be kept off the streets, but that they have racked up such extensive records before they are put in jail for a long, long time,” indicated plaintiff’s DWI attorney, Bobby Lee of Lee, Gober & Reyna in Austin.

Another concern is that under Texas law there is no provision for the state to permanently revoke a habitual DWI offender’s driver’s license. According to an impaired driving expert at Texas A&M, 50 to 70 percent of DWI offenders keep driving even with a suspended license.

To learn more, visit http://www.lgrlawfirm.com Lee, Gober & Reyna 11940 Jollyville Road #220-S Austin, Texas 78759 Phone: 512.478.8080