Bill McClellan: A realistic approach to battling DWI
St. Louis, MO
Wayne Wright was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for killing Shawn Williams.
That does not sound like much of a sentence, but this was a drunken driving case, and with such cases, punishment is all over the map. People around here know that. We think of Leonard Little spending a few nights in jail and continuing with his career as a professional football player. At least three years is something.
Wright did not seem like a bad person. Nor did he seem like a disreputable character. In fact, retired Judge Joan Burger and her husband were in court to offer their support. He's very remorseful, they told me.
Of course, remorse only goes so far. Williams was 23 years old, a bright and engaging young man with a radiant smile. He was a college graduate, active in his church. "Have a blessed day," he used to say, and with real feeling. That was according to his aunt, Clara Beth Thomas, who spoke for the family at the sentencing. Williams' father was there and sat stoically in the front row in his Air Force fatigues.
Judge Lisa Van Amburg asked assistant circuit attorney Dwight Warren to outline the facts of the case. Warren said that Wright was driving at a high rate of speed without his lights on when he struck Williams in the 3000 block of Olive Street on a Sunday night in September of last year. Wright continued driving east after he struck Williams, but was apprehended a few blocks away by a nightclub security guard.
After defense attorney Terry Flanagan told the judge of Wright's remorse, Wright spoke. He spoke softly and cried during his talk. I caught phrases and words. "I wish I could take it back ... every day ... pain that I caused... ." He said he knew something about anguish and suffering because he has been HIV-positive for 14 years. He said his remorse for what he had done would never leave him, and he said he didn't blame Williams family if they hated him.
Outside the courtroom, I spoke with Thomas. She did not speak of hate, but rather of impatience. When will we take drunken driving seriously?
I had intended to write about this case because of the onset of holiday parties. If people read about a sentencing like this, perhaps they would be careful.
But would they? And what does it mean to be careful? Perhaps most importantly, how best should we address the scourge of drunken driving?
The judge had mused about that very thing. She called drunken driving a plague on the community. Although the three-year sentence was a plea agreement, she said that cases like these were difficult for judges.
I'm sure she was talking about the awful duality of these cases — a terrible crime has been committed, but the criminal seems like one of us.
Which is why so many past efforts to do something about drunken driving have come to naught. We posture and announce our intention to go to some kind of zero-tolerance policy, and then we think, "There but for the grace of God ..."
I think our problem is with zero tolerance. We tend to lump all these cases together as if a DWI is a DWI is a DWI. It isn't.
Think of a fellow who truly has one too many. Imagine him with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent.
Is he impaired? Yes. But it is a minor impairment. His driving is probably comparable to the driving of an 84-year-old, or a young person who's talking on the phone while he or she drives.
Irresponsible? Sure. But a menace, a plague? Not really.
The driver we have to fear is the truly drunken driver. He or she is capable of busting through a stop light, of going the wrong way on an interstate, of speeding down Olive Street with no lights. Wright's blood-alcohol level was 0.19 percent.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and the legislators have promised legislation in the coming session to crack down on drunken driving. I hope they take a realistic approach. A zero-tolerance approach might sound good, but it won't work.
Let's crack down hard on anybody who drives drunk. Truly drunk. Thirty days in jail for 0.15 percent or for a refusal to take a breathalyzer. No exceptions. Mandatory prison time for anybody who kills or injures a person while driving under the influence.
Let's keep records of anybody who drives when they're at all impaired, but let's not pretend that a DWI is a DWI is a DWI. Let's take the "there but for the grace of God" stuff out of the equation. Only then will we really get serious. And we have to get serious. We have too many of these sentencings.
Labels: Missouri DWI Accidents-Injuries-Fatalities, Missouri DWI Arrests, Missouri DWI Charges, St. Louis MO DWI
