Posted on 08/15/2010 8:28:42 AM PDT by Abin Sur
The ninth conviction was the breaking point for one Texas judge who earlier this week sentenced a habitual drunken driver to life in prison. A Texas man is sentenced to life in prison for his ninth DWI conviction.
Bobby Stovall, 54, was driving his truck in Round Rock, Texas, in early July when he weaved through several lanes of traffic and hit another vehicle, injuring the driver. It was later determined that Stovall had a blood alcohol concentration of .32, four times the legal limit in Texas.
And while that DWI was certainly enough to get Stovall in trouble with the law, when the judge found out the defendant had eight prior DWI convictions across several different counties in Texas, he ordered up a life sentence for Stovall.
"This is someone who very deliberately has refused to make changes and continued to get drunk and get in a car and before he kills someone we decided to put him away," said Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley.
Bradley said that in addition to the multiple DWI convictions , Stovall also had a extensive rap sheet for other crimes, including burglary, credit card abuse and supplying alcohol to a minor.
"He basically walked through the penal code for the past twenty years without any regard for safety or society," said Bradley. "In every single one of his cases he had an opportunity to change."
But some argue that Stovall's sentence was too harsh and that the court should have considered his struggle with alcoholism.
"This guy has a disease, he is an alcoholic and this isn't the kind of situation where he's acting with malice to hurt people," said Lawrence Taylor, a DUI lawyer and author of "Drunk Driving Defense."
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I think Lawrence Taylor might take a different view of this if the guy hit one of Lawrence’s children while he was driving around drunk. Another lawyer who reinforces the stereotype.
Years ago, an old pal living in Green Bay came to the conclusion that he was hooked. He would stay out for two or three days, sleep in his car and hit the bars at eight AM. These binges happened three or four times every year until his wife, worried that depression and alcoholism might equal suicide, talked him into a 30 day stint in rehab.
He told me that he drove his car to the facility and blew a .280 when he checked in. The binges were just the tip of the problem; he drank everyday and had a more or less constant buzz.
Sadly, the rehabilitation didn’t “take,” and he took his life about a year later.
Heavy drinkers have a much higher tolerance than most people. Levels that would incapacitate or kill a normal person would have minimal effect on a hard-core alcoholic.
It might be a good idea to go back to colonial days in America.
One year in Jail was cosidered enough ... Anything more was considered cruel and ununual punishment ... so those people were publicly hanged ... right away.
So the guy's basically a POS that wreaks mayhem throughout the state. He hasn't killed anyone yet, but it's not because he gives a isht about anyone else.
For the last 30 years I've gone through life with a limp, one leg 2" shorter than the other, a tight ankle and back pain because some selfish SOB got stinking drunk and ran me down. I don't know what the answer is, and life is a long time, but a person who changes other innocent peoples' lives through their own selfishness needs to have the message delivered by somebody other than a "Gee he has issues" judge.
NO! Should we wait until he kills someone? he’s shown that he’s a danger to society and must be removed from that society.
My oldest had more DUI/DWI in his early teens. But he later mellowed out and has become a productive member of society. Not every person is alike.
A third degree felony can be enhanced and punished as a first degree with two prior felony convictions. I know because I am a criminal defense attorney in Texas. It’s harsh but fair.
Is this life with the possibility of parole?
Yes. Texas only has life without parole for capital murder. That is if the death penalty is not imposed.
Thanks. I used to be a PO in Florida. I know states defer in career offender laws but wasn’t sure in Tx. You’d think this guy would learn not to blow to consent to FSE’s after 8 priors. Btw, 9 is not uncommon. I’ve seen 13 and 14 over a 40 year period as far back as NCIC recorded.
That said, it is harsh and not cost effective. A three year inpatient with an extensive probation period would be my choice of sentences. Let him work and pay into a Crimes Compensation Fund.
I’m recovering(2 years) and that sounds like the story of my life. Last time I went to detox, I was .493.
Haven’t touched a drop since.
“This guy has a disease, he is an alcoholic and this isn’t the kind of situation where he’s acting with malice to hurt people,”
I have a disease too, type 2 diabetes, and in order to stay alive, I have to control it every day. Perhaps the same should be true for those with the “disease” of alcoholism.
I don’t know your son’s details and am glad he turned out well. I wish a judge had jailed the 20 year old repeat offender who was drunk and traveling almost 100 mph in a residential neighborhood when he struck my 41 year old sister in law leaving her with a permanent brain injury and breaking almost every bone in her body almost ten years ago. My brother was left with five children, the youngest six months old, and a wife disabled for life. The little POS fled the state with his parent’s help the night before his sentencing and was arrested on another DUI in Virginia almost two years later. He was returned to Texas on a warrant and served less than a year for ruining so many lives. He’s moved on with never an apology, my sister in law was robbed of a normal life, and her family deprived of a wonderful wife and mother.
Is a death sentence too harsh for the victim(s) of his tenth DWI?
Thanks for sharing your experience. Very sad.
You're right about that..it's the LAW that is messed up.
THREE is too many, as far as I'm concerned. I never, ever want to read about a 4th DWI conviction... ever. There's is NO excuse to justify it.
My position is... increase the BAC limit for "drunk driving"... to 0.11 %... but, dramatically increase the penalties for conviction... and, increase the penalties exponentially for multiple offenses.
He lost both his legs in a drunk driving crash, and was fitted with artificial legs, but was killed in another car accident, while drunk.
"In fact he was a menace to life, said Ochieng. "He had many extremely serious accidents. Both his legs had to be amputated. They were replaced with crude false limbs made from iron.
"He was just like Mr Toad [from Wind In The Willows], very arrogant on the road, especially when he had whisky inside. I was not surprised when I learned how he died."
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-431908/A-drunk-bigot--US-Presidental-hopeful-HASNT-said-father-.html#ixzz0wgxM6w21
Thanks. You can probably tell I have a visceral reaction to stories like this even after all these years. One positive out of it is that in our family all of the teenagers and their friends saw and understood the potential effects of drunk driving up close and personal and to my knowledge not one of them ever took a drink and got behind the wheel.
Then, why wasn't this done 6 convictions ago???
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