Mo. court ruling could free DWI offenders

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A recent state Supreme Court ruling that allows many repeat drunken drivers to avoid felony charges could result in the release of some offenders.

Because of the ruling earlier this month, prosecutors are reducing some felony charges in pending cases to misdemeanors. Defense attorneys contend the ruling also applies retroactively, meaning some people convicted of felony drunken driving should be released. Lawmakers, meanwhile, are researching the issue.

The court's decision came in the Lafayette County case of Reginald A. Turner, 54, whose 2005 felony conviction was based on a municipal drunken-driving plea and two state convictions.

At issue was an old clause near the bottom of the state's drunken-driving law that conflicted with newer language intended to toughen penalties. The clause said that if someone received a suspended sentence after pleading guilty in municipal court to driving while intoxicated, that conviction could not be counted toward state felony charges, which prosecutors can file on a driver's third offense.

The Supreme Court said that if two conflicting standards exist within a criminal law, the defendant gets the lesser penalty. In Jackson County alone, prosecutors had about 145 felony cases pending against repeat drunken drivers. Now they must reduce those to misdemeanors, prosecutors said, meaning offenders will face up to a year in jail, rather than up to four years in prison.

Sen. Chris Koster, D-Harrisonville, said senators hope to pass an emergency measure to make necessary changes to state law.

He also said lawmakers were trying to figure out if the Supreme Court ruling applies to people already serving time.

If it does, some people convicted of DWI felonies will be released from prison, while thousands of others could have their old felony convictions overturned, defense lawyers say.

As of March 7, about 1,100 people were in Missouri prisons for felony drunken driving. It's not known many of those cases involved at least one municipal guilty plea.

"The opinion has sent shock waves through the law enforcement community," Kanatzar said.

Leon Munday, an assistant Jackson County public defender, mailed letters last week to 14 clients serving prison time for felony drunken driving advising them to meet deadlines to file forms for release.

"Let all these guys out," Munday said. "If the Legislature is going to criminalize some conduct, they have to make it clear what the heck you can't do."

Turner's appeals attorney, Kathleen Webber, said her client and others like him deserve a break because of the unclear law.

"When you can't tell what counts and what doesn't, it's just not fair to subject them to enhanced punishment," she said.