Making it stick

[Dr Sardonicus]

This thread is for posts describing situations involving violations of existing law, where the legal system has proved inadequate to enforce its own mandates; and to offer suggestions to remedy the situation.

This thread is not for posts bemoaning things that may be considered immoral or unethical but are not illegal. If you want a "There Aught to be a Law" thread, start one yourself.

It is also not for situations in which new technologies have created forms of crime not anticipated in established legal principles. Thus, for example, the legal concepts of theft or larceny were formerly governed by the idea that "if you can't feel it, you can't steal it." The concept had to be amended to cover theft of funds by unauthorized electronic funds transfers. If you want a "Legal concepts need updating" thread, create one yourself.

I begin with one of my pet peeves, habitual driving offenders. They're everywhere, of course, but two of the most egregious instances occurred recently in the Great State of Illinois. One involves what is practically a defining instance of "habitual offender." The AP story appeared December 16:

Illinois driver imprisoned for 26th revoked license charge

This guy got six years because he pled Guilty; if convicted at trial, he could have gotten seven years. I note, however, that his license had already been revoked for life.

The other involves one of the most spectacular instances of impaired driving I've heard of in some time. On Tuesday, September 3, 2019 a 28-year-old woman named Ashia Marshall was driving a Jeep Cherokee with two passengers in Champaign, Illinois.

She plowed through a closed construction zone and off the edge of a bridge, went airborne, and careened down an embankment. The car was stopped by concrete barriers along the shoulder of SB I-57, though some pieces of concrete and wreckage did fly into the roadway. She and her passengers suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The interested reader can easily find dashcam video of the wreck. It is disquieting to ponder the destruction and carnage that might have resulted had the car made it onto the roadway. Especially for the car that provided the video.

Ashia Marshall was charged with two counts felony aggravated DUI (a class 4 felony, the least serious class of felony). She was released on her own recognizance (ROR). In a Wednesday, December 4 probable cause hearing that took less than ten minutes, the judge ruled that there was sufficient evidence to bring the case to trial, setting a preliminary date of February 5, 2020.

Early on the morning of Friday, December 6, a woman was struck and injured by a car that then drove off. The victim suffered a dislocated hip, road rash, and skin peeled off one of her hands.

Police soon were in pursuit of a suspect who stopped, drove off again, stopped, got out of the vehicle, ran, and was soon apprehended.

It was none other than Our Lady of the Flying Jeep, Ashia Marshall. She was charged with a number of crimes: Aggravated DUI, leaving the scene of an accident causing injury, driving on a revoked license, driving without insurance, eluding, resisting arrest, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of a lookalike drug. She admitted using drugs but refused to be tested, forcing police to get a warrant to obtain blood and breath samples (and mandating statutory revocation of her already-revoked license).

The most serious of the charges is leaving the scene -- a class 2 felony.

Her arrest precipitated a bond hearing that same day on her earlier case. Her ROR was revoked and she was jailed on $50,000 bond. Next day came a hearing on her new case. She pleaded Not Guilty to all charges. Bond was set at $150,000 for that case. So she's going to stay in jail pending trial on her first case, unless somebody ponies up $20,000 cash to spring her.

These cases point up the inability of the legal system to stop habitual driving offenders whose licenses have been revoked, from getting behind the wheel again. It is a wonderment to me that habitual driving offenders are even able to obtain cars, given that they generally don't have a valid driver's license, and don't have and can't get insurance. I think car dealers and rental agencies check that their customers have valid licenses before handing over the keys. I'm guessing either private sales or borrowing cars owned by others.

However, it would be impracticable to keep a list of revoked drivers and expect would-be car sellers (especially individuals selling their cars privately) to check whether the would-be purchaser is on the list, and refuse to sell if they were. For one thing, it would be a very long list.

I have pondered possible legal remedies, and have yet to devise anything both satisfactory and constitutional. Among my ideas for dealing with habitual driving offenders:

1) Shoot them (death penalty). Satisfying, but almost certain to be ruled "cruel and unusual punishment" on the grounds of being disproportionate to the offense.

2) Lock 'em up and throw away the key. Although possibly legally defensible, similar to "three strikes" laws, it would likely be impracticable due to the large number of offenders involved.

3) Render them physically incapable of driving. Satisfying, but almost certain to be ruled "cruel and unusual punishment" involving maiming (amputations or blinding).

4) Mark them as ineligible to purchase a car. A brand or tattoo on, say, the forehead might work. Branding might be ruled "cruel and unusual punishment," though.

The fourth idea is the best I have come up with so far. I invite readers to come up with designs.

I invite readers to come up with other ideas to keep habitual driving offenders from driving again.

I also invite readers to come up with areas where the legal system might need a bit of fine tuning to improve enforcement, and suggestions for doing this. The area of metal theft comes to mind...

[xilman]

Well, if we´re considering motoring offen{c,s}es where the legal system appears not to have reached a just solution yet, I refer you to the case involving one Harry Dunn.

[Nick]

Bring in Newspeak so that citizens cannot even think of doing something illegal.
On second thoughts, perhaps failures in law enforcement are sometimes a good thing, e.g. for whistleblowers.