Drunk driver

[Pedro]

The courts in Australia persistently let serial drunk drivers off with a fine and suspension for a short time. In California the courts hand out sentences more in line with what's expected by the public.


Drunk driver who fled from police gets 25 to life
Thursday, October 25, 2007
A Santa Clara man convicted previously of causing a fatal crash while driving drunk has been sent to state prison for 25 years to life under the "three strikes" law for fleeing from police at up to 120 mph while under the influence, authorities said today.
Stanley Barrymore Newton, 49, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.20 percent - more than twice the legal limit - when he ran two red lights July 8, 2006, while trying to evade a police officer in San Jose, prosecutors said.
The officer was trying to stop Newton for driving his Toyota Camry over the solid yellow lines at Lincoln Avenue and Lonus Street. Newton refused to stop and got onto Interstate 280, where he sped away at up to 120 mph, prosecutors said.
The officer stopped chasing him because of safety concerns but later caught up to him on a side street. Newton pleaded guilty in March to felony reckless driving while evading a peace officer and driving under the influence of alcohol, a misdemeanor.
The evasion charge counted as Newton's third strike. He was sentenced Monday by Judge Andrea Bryan of Santa Clara County Superior Court under California's sentencing law that requires a term of 25 years to life for any convicted felon who has previously committed two serious or violent felonies, or strikes.
"This is exactly what the voters were thinking of, a scary kind of person who can harm anyone at any point," said Kevin Smith, the Santa Clara County deputy district attorney who prosecuted Newton.
In 1988, Newton was driving with a 0.12 blood-alcohol level when he crashed a Chevrolet Camaro into a light pole on the Capitol Expressway, prosecutors said. A passenger in the front seat, 36-year-old Richard Frable was killed.