If you have been convicted of a DUI offense, you may have some options available to clear your record.
Your first step after a DUI conviction is to start a new trial from the court. If there was a mistake in the admission of evidence at your trial or some other procedural problems, you can ask the court for a new trial. If the judge accepts your request for a new trial, you will be allowed to present your whole case again but this time in front of a new jury. If you’re found not guilty after your second trial, then your record will be cleared and the legal effect would be as if you never were convicted.
If the judge refuses to give you a new chance, or you lose at your second trial, you might be able to appeal your DUI conviction. If there is an error of law at your trial, or the jury completely disregarded the facts, you may have grounds for an appeal. An appeal involves filing briefs with the court and an oral argument - you are not required to appear or participate in this appeal. If you’re successful in your appeal your record will be cleared.
If your appeal is unsuccessful, you still have a few options. In many states, you may be eligible for an expungement. An expungement is a legal procedure in which, after the passage of a certain amount of time after your conviction or arrest (typically, one year), your DUI lawyer can apply to have your DUI conviction deleted from your criminal record. However, in most states, an expungement is not available for DUI.
If you’re thinking about drinking during your graduation period and you want to avoid DUI, you better read the next lines.
In a effort to avoid tragedies, the authorities gave a few advices about what to do in case you’re going to drink a lot during the graduation period. The officers said that every student should think about the “every fifteen minutes” program at schools each year and how that affected their peers.
One of the advices that the officers gave was about detecting which of your friends that had been drinking a lot and take their keys and car and call their parents because you may be saving their life, or simply drive them home. And if it’s someone you don’t know the best think you could do is simply call the police and provide them with the cars license plate number.
They also talked about how alcohol affects your confidence in your drinving skills. Most of the time people think they are sober and they can drive, but the truth is that when you’re drunk it’s hard to know how drunk you are.
DUI arrests are increasing latelly and ironically, the Police said that an easy way to detect under the influence drivers was by searching drivers moving under the speed limit. Most of the young people tries to compensate their lack of reflexes by driving too slow and this makes them easy to spot.
Robert Kent Vandyke, was sentenced to prison today for his ninth (yes, 9!) DUI conviction. Robert was considered guilty in 2000 for killing a woman in a driving accident, and after he finished his parole he was found driving under the influence.
Robert’s lawyer asked the jury to set aside the jury verdict. He argued there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that Vandyke was unsafe to drive when he was arrested.
The driver refused to take the sobriety tests at the time of the arrest, so it was not possible to determine the alcohol levels on his blood.
Vandyke’s request was obviously denied and he was sentenced to the maximum penalty: 5 years in prison.
Authorities are now using a new monitoring program to keep track of their DUI offenders.
To add more efficiency to the largely used DUI method, the DUI checkpoints, some authorities are working and applying new methods to prevent DUI, especially double DUI.
A new ankle-mounted electronic monitor is now being used by a few people, all of them convicted with DUI. The device tests sweat levels for alcohol and if you hit the .02 limit a computer will document the occurrence, and if that happens then you will probably go to jail again.
Some of the users said the device has help them to leave the addiction to alcohol, because the device reminds people not to drink. The new device will be part of the mandatory sentencing and the users will have to pay the bill, 90$ a week, because one of the major criteria for the creators of this device was that taxpayers shouldn’t have any cost at all with this program.
The statistics say that 70% of DUI convicts reoffend, and this was the best measure to control the situation, because it’s a win/win situation - the roads will be safer and the convicts will get the change to get off alcohol.
The device also alerts the authorities if the user tries to remove it of disable it.
This client was arrested by Norman PD for DUI in the state of Oklahoma. It was his third DUI arrest, so we can say that he was in trouble. The driver accepted to do the field test and the officer told him that he had failed the test. A breathlyzer test was taken with a result of greater than .10%. His license was revoked for one year. The law firm in charge of this case requested an administrative hearing to contest the revocation.
The client had been in a event that evening, prior to his DUI arrest, where he spent a lot of time with some of his friends. Coincidently, among those friends there was an A.B.L.E. officer, a probation officer (who was with him at the time of the arrest) , a Assistant District Attorney and her mother, a PhD in learning disorders.
They all testified on his behalf at the hearing that he could not have drunk more that two glasses of wine the entire evening and appeared completely normal and sober. The PhD further testified that she was aware that he suffered dyslexia and that this problem would cause a person with it to perform poorly on the respective field tests.
Conclusion: The driver got his license back!
I saw this story on another website. It’s a great success story of how to win a DUI case. Like any other “machine”, Breathalyzers are not completely invulnerable.
Here is a DUI case scenario in which the person charged with DUI successfully managed to win the case.
This story starts with a supposedly “citizen” calling the cops after seeing this person driving poorly. The police went after that person and they didn’t saw him/her driving abnormally like the “citizen” claimed. He/She was told to stop her car and the cops arrested him/her for DUI. The driver could lose her drivers license for a whole year.
An “Implied Consent Hearing” was made to save the persons driver license. The lawyer was able to show that the arrest was invalid since the cop never had any crime occur in his presence and all evidence from the point of arrest was inadmissible. The lawyer shared the information with the prosecutor in the criminal case and the case was dismissed without any costs at all.
Conclusion: The driver maintained the driver license, he/she didn’t pay anything and also was not convicted of nothing.
That’s one of the many success stories that I’ll post in the next days. Stay around and drive safely.
