Last week the North Carolina General Assembly convened for its 2014 “short session”, in which the legislature will only consider certain types of bills, including budgetary matters and those that were approved by one chamber (either House or Senate) last year, but not approved by the other. This year there are a number of bills that are awaiting approval by one chamber of the General Assembly that would drastically change the rules governing DWIs, particularly habitual DWIs. Under current North Carolina law, a person who has been convicted of a DWI three prior times and is then convicted for a fourth time faces charges for habitually driving while impaired, a felony charge. The Habitual DWI statute imposes much harsher penalties, including mandatory substance abuse counseling and a minimum active jail sentence of at least one year, which cannot be suspended.
However, H31, H40 and H183, would change current DWI law. H40 would reduce the number of previous DWI convictions needed to charge someone with a habitual DWI to two. This means that a driver’s third DWI charge would be a habitual, felony charge carrying increased penalties, minimum jail time, and mandatory substance abuse counseling. H31 would amend the habitual DWI law so that if a defendant has previously been charged with a habitual DWI, no matter how long ago, any future DWI charge would be a felony DWI. H183 would relax the evidence gathering procedures for police departments by allowing any hospital, whether public or private, to test driver’s blood for alcohol and drugs instead of requiring a specially certified lab to run the test. If these bills are passed this year, they will change current NC DWI law by imposing stricter punishments and giving police more options for collecting evidence that can be presented in court.
