D.U.Idiot: Trucker Drank Beer to Stay Awake

While you can operate under the influence and still be under .08...

...you cannot be above .08 and not be under the influence.

So explain to me what the required "proof of an additional fact which the other does not" would be to justify the lesser charge of driving under the influence? There are no other provisions requiring additional facts which the operating above .08 does not already cover.

Charge 'em with one or the other...but not both. Yeah, it was stupid of that driver to drink and drive...but stupid isn't a crime. If it were, there'd be a LOT of people behind bars.

 

Let me try another more extreme example. Murder. Lets say someone kills someone else. Now lets say that someone killed someone else because that person was Jewish, or Black, or whatever. Now this person commited one crime, murder. However, this person can now be charged with murder, but also with a Hate crime, possibly also Assault and Battery, etc etc. There are different factors in the crime that each can have their own charges brought up on.

Here we are talking about DUI, and OWI. You can get tagged for DUI for driving under the influence of almost any substance, whether it be alcohol, marijuana, pain killers, etc etc. Does not have to be alcohol though. OWI, Operating while Intoxicated, they have evidence that you are operating a vehicle while drunk (or Imparied from whatever substance etc).

Maybe I am explaining this poorly. So here is something that I was able to pull down from Ohio's DUI laws. It helps to explain how one can be charged with two crimes for the same action.

"In Ohio, even if you are not "under the influence," you may still be guilty of a alcohol related crime if you are "over the legal limit." Driving over the legal limit is not the same as driving under the influence" (although the two may certainly occur at the same time and one may be charged and convicted of both). As you are probably aware, a person can be over the legal limit without that level of alcohol impairing the person's ability to drive (or do other things) appropriately. Conversely, a person can be under the legal limit and still have that level of alcohol impair that person's ability to drive (or do other things)."

"It is possible to be charged with both being under the influence and driving over the legal limit, and it is possible to be convicted of both. However, if one is convicted of both (for the same incident), then he can only be sentenced for one. Most times a person is arrested for a DWI offense, they are charged with both. This way the police and the prosecution have two shots at a conviction. "

I hope that explains it better than I was.

 

...two shots at a conviction for the same ###### offense....and that isn't double jeopardy HOW?

I don't buy into the whole "hate crime" legislation, either. Why should killing a person of a different religion or ethnic background net you a longer sentence than killing a person of your own? Are not "ALL MEN CREATED EQUAL"? Laws making one man's life worth more than that of another run contrary to that most basic principal on which so many have fought and died for.

Just because you shoot a person 3 times doesn't mean you should be charged with 3 counts of murder. There was only 1 individual murdered, so there should be only 1 murder charge.

 

Well, not meaning to hijack this thread and turn it into about murder, I will just say this, that yes, all men are created equal. However, if your motivation to kill someone is because you view them as not equal (i.e you killed them because you hate black people, and the reason you killed them was because they are black, that is what makes it a hate crime).

I thought what I had posted from the Ohio site would have explained how and why you can have two charges brought against you for getting a blood/alcohol content of .127 and go driving. I don't really know what else I can say to help you understand why it is not an infringement upon their fifth amendment rights.

But I assure you it is not (I am sure others may have tried to challenge it on those grounds and have lost out to the courts.) And while they are busy talking to their lawyers trying to figure out if they can spin a violation of their rights to a jury, I wonder if before they decided to get wasted if they considered the rights of the people that they might have plowed into. Just food for thought.

 

I think that is the problem with people these days. Government oversteps and infringement upon our Constitutionally protected Rights are shrugged off as perfectly acceptable.

If the legal intoxication limit is .08 and you exceed that, you ought to be charged with driving while intoxicated. If you are not at the legal intoxication limit but you are impaired, then charge them with driving under the influence. Charging with both is double jeopardy...two prosecutions for the same infraction.

If a person murders another, who cares what the motivation for that murder was? A person is dead, and that person's life should not be deemed any more or less valuable based upon their religion or ethnicity when compared to that of their attacker.

Sure, the courts have ruled in favor of what the prosecutors want...and people just roll over and accept it instead of voting out the judges (city, county, state) who approve of such tactics, burning up their senator's phone lines whenever one of those judges they can't vote out (federal) gets nominated to a higher seat, voting out state AG's who pursue those tactics, and again, burning up their senator's phone lines if the president nominates one of these type to head up the justice dept.

The Constitution is there for a reason. Either the protections spelled out in it actually mean something, or it has less value than the roll of TP in the bathroom.

 

Wow he most of missed a lot of heath classes in school or he was just to hung over to pay attention in them. Last time I checked beer has no keep you awake chemicals in it like caffeine. He most have read the label wrong and though it was root beer or something. Also it amazes and horrifies me that anyone can drive with that much alcohol in them. I have more then 6 and I can barely walk let alone drive a truck!

 

I think anyone caught drinking and drivin a big truck should have there lic pulled for good.
IF you need a beer so bad you do it while drivng you have issues.and the rest of us have enough on us out here without some moron killing people while drunk not that this one did but many have.

 

He was 3 times over the legal limit .04, Commercial drivers are allowed .04, at least in California.

 

This is part of why i pull a tanker. if i ever get that stupid i'll be upside down in a ditch and dead quicker. hahaha.

 

No........getting charged with TWO (separate) Offenses related to the same isn't "Double Jeopardy".
"Double Jeopardy" is being TRIED for the SAME OFFENSE twice.