Jury Duty II

OK, so it wasn't a short day at the Dekalb Co. Courthouse. In fact, I got there at 8:15 and I was there until a little past 6pm, but at least I don't have to go back again.

So, I got picked to sit on a DUI case. My first time called in for jury duty and I get picked to serve. Great.

Well, apparently, there's 2 types of DUIs, at least in the state of Georgia. There's the Per Se DUI, with which we are all familiar. That's the one where you take a breath test back at the station (because the portable one in their car is not admissable in court) and if your BAC is 0.08 or over, then you're Per Se DUI. However, there's also another little something called a "Less Safe DUI" which I was entirely unaware of. Get this, it basically says that if you are operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol to the extent that you are a less safe driver, than you're DUI. This has all the same penalties as a per se DUI.

Here's a copy of the actual Georgia State code:
(taken from: http://www.legis.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/gl_codes_detail.pl?code=40-6-391)

40-6-391.
(a) A person shall not drive or be in actual physical control of any moving vehicle while:
(1) Under the influence of alcohol to the extent that it is less safe for the person to drive;

So, is it me, or is that a rather far-reaching definition there? To me, that's a pretty wide-open phrase. Basically, a police officer can arrest you for being under the influence of any amount of alcohol and later has to prove that you were "less safe." Who determines if you are "less safe?" Well, the jury, if it's a jury trial or, I suppose the judge, if it's a bench trial.

Now, I don't want to downplay the horrible things that can and many times DO happen when people drive while under the influence of alcohol. Please don't think I'm doing that. I used to be a S.A.D.D. officer in highschool. I've seen what can happen when driving drunk with both uncle Allen, and my friends Craig and Steve. However, this law just seems to give way too much discretion to the police. You can basically be prosecuted for having 1 beer with dinner and then driving. Don't laugh, it could happen if you get pulled over by an overzealous police officer and they happen to smell alcohol on you.

I'll let you all think about that for a while and add some more details of what happened in the trial later.

-Matt