Arizona DUI Law - More Kind to the Educated

Less than a year after the passage of the must punitive DUI laws in the country, Arizona DUI law looks to take another leap forward in the race to claim top honors as the state with the least tolerance for drunk drivers. Although the governor of Arizona just vetoed the newest bill based on one provision that shortened the length of ignition interlock device required for a first offense, the vetoed bill contained another giant step in incarceration.

The previous set of Arizona DUI penalties provided for a minimum of 45 days in jail for a first offense with a .20 or more alcohol content in the body. However, if the alcohol content was a .199, the the law only mandated 10 days of incarceration. This struck many as a unjustifiable leap. Rather than scale back the 45 days, the new law sought to mandate 30 days of jail time for any DUI with an alcohol concentration of .150 to .199. Many experts who watch the movement of Arizona DUI legislation closely believe it is only a matter of time before this reappears on the governor's desk without the language that caused the veto.

This author is unaware of any state other than Arizona that mandates anything close to 45 days for a first ever DUI offense. And 45 days is just the minimum, a starting point. A judge is free to impose more than that, and in rare cases may.

As scary as 45 days in jail sounds to a person who has never been arrested for anything, the nightmare even gets worse when the find out that, if they are charged with DUI in the Phoenix area, that jail time will likely be served in "Tent City" operated by Sheriff Joe Apraio. This jail is reputedly the only American jail ever condemned by amnesty international, although this is an unconfirmed rumor. Rumor or not, it sounds pretty scary to a stay at home mom who has never done anything wrong in her life, and just as scary to the BMW driving Scottsdale executive.

There is a wide discrepancy in how much time a person must serve depending on the court they are charged in, and also on the individual judge. As an example, in Scottsdale DUI cases charged in Scottsdale Municipal Court, there is no possibility of electronic home detention in lieu of jail time. In Phoenix DUI cases however, Phoenix Municipal Court does have an electronic home detention program where a person convicted of DUI and sentenced to 45 days in jail can serve 15 days in jail followed by 30 days of home detention. This must be done with the approval of the judge, and not all judges will grant it in all cases. There are also certain things, such as any prior record of violent offenses, that will preclude a person from doing home detention in an Arizona DUI case.

With so many variables out there as to sentencing, it is difficult for the average person to know what they actually face when faced with a DUI charge. This confusion is a source of great stress, and that stress can be exacerbated by TV advertising by the state and by defense firms with massive advertising budgets. Both types of ads seem designed to scare. The best advice a person can get at the outset of a DUI case is to ignore everything they hear on TV and the radio, and start doing research. A lack of planning or a poor decision is what got the person the DUI in the first place, and acting out of impulse or fear after receiving the citation or summons is pure folly. Instead, I recommend reading as much as possible on the subject. While it is not practical to learn everything needed to defend yourself, you should be literate in the subject prior to talking with counsel. That way, you will better be able to detect what advice is in your best interest, and what "advice" is a thinly disguised sales pitch.

If you are facing an Arizona DUI and you have made it to the end of this article, congratulate yourself. You are doing the right thing. You are reading. Remember, knowledge is power, and the more your read about drunk driving laws the better able you will be to make the best decisions in your case. With so much hype other there, you have to be your own best advocate until such time as you make the decision to turn your matter over to a capable lawyer.