Governor Closes Loophole in Drunken Driving Law
New law treats cases continued without a finding as convictions.
The governor has signed a bill toughening the state's repeat drunken-driver statute, better known as "Melanie's Law." And it happened fast—Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill closing a "loophole" in the law less than two months after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the statute did not apply to people who had their cases continued without a finding. Melanie's Law passed in 2005. It stiffened drunken-driving penalties by requiring an offender's license to be suspended for three years on a second offense. The law was named after 13-year-old Melanie Powell, who was killed by a repeat drunken driver as she crossed a street in Marshfield in 2003. The law, however, did not apply to those who admitted to sufficient facts of the crime but had …
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Brian Simoneau
7:17 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Thanks Kim. Excellent story otherwise, objective and very well written. more ›