Is Life Sentence Too Harsh For Man Convicted of Ninth DWI?

[Autumnleaf]

Texas Man Gets Life Sentence for Ninth DWI - ABC News

 

[ACougar]

I don't see jail as punishment, I see it as a way to protect society from dangerous people. This is obviously a dangerous person, I'd keep him in jail for the rest of his life.

 

[Jonathan David]

He certainly needed a long jail sentence. I won't argue with that. Life? I don't know. Seems a bit harsh but anything under about 5 - 10 years would seem pretty lean.

What I am curious about is whether he had a licence? I would hope that he was permanently banned from driving after two or three. Does anybody know whether he was driving under a ban or whether he had a valid Texas licence?

 

[Autumnleaf]

Why is jail a proper response by society to a drug addiction coupled with impaired judgement? This person didn't harm anyone and didn't try to. They just couldn't get off the sauce.

 

[Yusuf Evans]

Why is jail a proper response by society to a drug addiction coupled with impaired judgement? This person didn't harm anyone and didn't try to. They just couldn't get off the sauce.

Yeah, but all it takes is for him to be drinking and driving in a head on collision; then we'll hear how he survived but the 3 little kids and their mom who he hit didn't.

 

[Jonathan David]

Why is jail a proper response by society to a drug addiction coupled with impaired judgement? This person didn't harm anyone and didn't try to. They just couldn't get off the sauce.

It's not the drinking that's jail-worthy. I agree that alcoholism is an addiction that requires care, not prison. BUT, if he nine times decided to drive when hammered (four times the legal limit), that is punishable in my opinion. If I were an alcoholic, and knew that I couldn't control it, I would hope that I could at least leave my car at home.

Putting this guy in jail, in my mind, is very different than jailing someone who continually shows up drunk to his/her job as a store clerk or accountant. When sober, he needed to recognize his illness and take steps to not put other people at risk by driving (e.g. drink at home, take a bus, drink at a local bar that is walking distance, or do whatever else circumstances dictate). Failing to do so was negligent, reckless, anti-social, and extremely dangerous... as evidenced by the person he injured (good thing that he hit a car and not a pedestrian... but that is luck, not design).

 

[ACougar]

He was caught placing the lives of innocent people in jeopardy nine times. Who knows how many times he got away with it. Had he taken a revolver put one bullet in the chamber spun it and then pulled the trigger while pointing it at pedestrian he would be locked up. I don't see how drunk driving is much different.

Why is jail a proper response by society to a drug addiction coupled with impaired judgement? This person didn't harm anyone and didn't try to. They just couldn't get off the sauce.

 

[Jakihe]

It does anger me that this man was drinking and driving, putting innocent lives at risk.
What makes me angrier, at this point, is that there was a ninth DWI!
He was stopped and ticketed 8 times prior and the law never found any responsibility in rehabilitating? Maybe they could have taken this more seriously the 2nd time even, especially the 3rd, 4th, 5th.......
The man is sick. Most people would learn a lesson getting one DWI.
This man has already lost his life to alcoholism.
Where has justice served properly?
He was free to drive the streets after 8 DWIs and now is is sentenced to life instead of receiving the help and care he really needs.
Maybe he'll find God through all this.

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

Don't feel to bad for him,He could be out in 5 years,With good behavior.

Stovall would be eligible for parole in five years, but depending on his conduct in prison and other factors, that could be as long as 10 to 15 years.

No I wouldn't fill that a life sentence is to long,After 9 DUI's.

 

[Mystman]

I really have to wonder what kind of punishment he got the previous 8 times. If he just got a minor fine 8 times, giving a life sentence for offense number 9 is a bit ridiculous.

It's more sensible to ramp up the punishment. First offense: just a fine. Second offense: forced course on why drunk driving is a bad idea, paid out of your own pocket, and failing to pass it means not getting your driver's license back. Maybe include forced treatment for alcoholism. Third offense: permanent removal of driver's license. Fourth offense (which means that you're drunk driving without a license..): significant jail sentence, possibly life if psychologists think that you're likely to get behind the wheel again.

 

[rambot]

If he stays sober (and there was some monitoring procedure) i think it'd be good for him to stay out.

"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.

Oh. Then lock him up cause he can't control his addiction.

 

[WalksWithChrist]

Why is jail a proper response by society to a drug addiction coupled with impaired judgement? This person didn't harm anyone and didn't try to. They just couldn't get off the sauce.

He did injure (harm) the other driver according to the article.

With his ninth DUI and his rap sheet, I can't help but wonder what he was doing out free in the first place.
Especially in Texas of all states.

If I read the article right, it sounded as if the court's right hand didn't know what the left was doing. It says after the judge "found out" about his priors. Found out? Wouldn't the judge know right away?

I work for a court system in another state and I can tell you that often the court's right hand really doesn't know what the left is doing.

 

[CyberPaladin]

Okay time for a little reality check the guy was given life not life without parole so realisticly he'll probably be out sometime in the next 5-15 years on parole depending on his behavior while in prison.

 

[FreeSpirit74]

Texas Man Gets Life Sentence for Ninth DWI - ABC News

Absolutely it is not too harsh, and I'm glad that at least one judge is taking the issue of drunk driving seriously when it comes to sentencing. There is never any excuse for anyone to be driving drunk; here in NY we even have a law that makes it an automatic felony for someone to be driving drunk with a child in the car. We also have a charge of Aggravated-DWI for people with a BAC over .18.

As for this:

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."
"He has a serious problem and I hope the days are past where we think alcoholism is something you choose," said Taylor.
Taylor said that he does not agree with the judge's sentencing of Stovall and would have preferred more "rehabilitation" than "ending his life."
"You're essentially doing just that, ending this man's life, at the expense of taxpayers," he said.

... oh, please. Unless you are a child born with fetal alcohol syndrome, yes, alcoholism is a choice. It all starts when you pick up that first drink, and then allowing your useage to escalate unchecked. And as for "ending his life"... again, that is Stoval's choice too. And better his life "end" than some innocent victim who happens to be driving on the same roadway at the same time as Stoval.

I would love to hear Lawrence Taylor's excuses for this idiot. I think that if Diane Schuler had survived, she would have deserved nothing less than the death penalty.

 

[Aimiel]

I'd say life without parole would be better. A friend of mine was convicted to 15-20 years (he served twelve) for his sixth DUI, which put a woman and her five children in the hospital. He was more than twice the legal limit, and doing more than 70 MPH in a 25 MPH zone when he hit her car head-on. She was stopped at a stop-sign. I witnessed to him many times, before, during and after prison. Three days before his accident, I told him that he was going to lose his family if he didn't stop drinking. He said, "I know I have a problem and need to quit, but I'm having too much FUN!!!"

He got jail-house religion, which he forgot all about when freed. His wife divorced him. He got visits from his two daughters every second week while in prison: his sister would take them to see him. When he got out, he went right back to drinking. They and I no longer speak to him.

 

[FreeSpirit74]

He was more than twice the legal limit, and doing more than 70 MPH in a 25 MPH zone when he hit her car head-on.

I don't even drive that fast on the highway. Unbelievable that she survived (he should have died, as should all drunk drivers who cause crashes like that).

He said, "I know I have a problem and need to quit, but I'm having too much FUN!!!"

When he got out, he went right back to drinking.

Oh, yes, Mr. Lawrence Taylor... alcoholism isn't a choice, now, is it?

No excuse for it, especially since he acknowledges that he needs to quit.

He got jail-house religion, which he forgot all about when freed.

And that's the problem with trying to force these people to go through rehab. It only works when they make the decision for themselves to turn from that path of self-destruction and go in a new, better direction. I have a brother who is currently incarcerated because he broke parole by being caught looking at kiddie inappropriate content on a computer with an Internet connection he wasn't even supposed to have, when he's already done time for molesting a child. Every Saturday, my parents drive down to Fishkill, NY to see him, but I refuse to interact with him until he serves his time, gets out, and proves consistantly that he's gonna walk the straight and narrow. I am not afraid to disown my own brother and, once our parents are dead, I'm the only family in this area he's got.

 

[bricklayer]

I was once told, by a state trooper here in Ohio, that a person is more likely to be killed or injurded because someone broke a traffic law than all the other laws combined.
Can someone confirm or refute this?

 

[1TrueDisciple]

Texas Man Gets Life Sentence for Ninth DWI - ABC News

The sentence won't stand an appeal. The defendant here has an 8th amendment case.

 

[1TrueDisciple]

Yeah, but all it takes is for him to be drinking and driving in a head on collision; then we'll hear how he survived but the 3 little kids and their mom who he hit didn't.

If that happened, he would certainly be charged with vehicular homicide. However, with his record, he could well be charged with manslaughter, and a very adept prosecutor might even get a 2nd degree murder conviction.

 

[Mystman]

I was once told, by a state trooper here in Ohio, that a person is more likely to be killed or injurded because someone broke a traffic law than all the other laws combined.
Can someone confirm or refute this?

FARS Encyclopedia

>30.000 traffic deaths per year. No idea how many of those deaths are due to someone else breaking the law, but still. It's a lot.

Table 1 - Crime in the United States 2008

>16.000 murders per year

So yeah.

This is exactly why those people who are always blaming the police for giving them fines for speeding etc instead of catching "real" criminals are so stupid. The "real" criminals are less of a problem than the people who speed all the time.