TIGHTER DWI LAWS SOUGHT (SECOND IN A SERIES)

Law enforcement officials agree that criteria and restrictions in a law DWI legislation have allowed habitual drunks to continue driving, despite one, two or even more convictions.

Trooper Blane Adams, who patrols the Cape Girardeau zone, said about half of the people he takes into custody for DWI have been arrested previously for the same offense. He said many of those people benefit by loopholes in the legislation.

"You get three DWI offenses," Adams said, "there's a problem. You have a drinking problem no matter how long it's been."

The law now states that a third DWI arrest can be charged as a felony if the previous two convictions occurred within 10 years.

Statistically speaking, Sgt. Brent Davis of the patrol said, someone who drinks and gets behind the wheel of a car has little chance of being caught. Someone who gets convicted of two or three DWIs -- no matter what the time frame -- has a serious drinking problem, he said.

"If these people can draw breath," Davis said, "they're going to drink, and they're going to get behind the wheel."

Adams said another trooper in the Cape Girardeau zone arrested a man for DWI who had a previous conviction. A couple of weeks later, Adams arrested the same man for the same offense.

"It was his third charge, but since there hadn't been a conviction on the second offense -- because it hadn't gone through the courts yet -- it couldn't be charged as a felony," he said. "He had to be charged as (a second-time offender) on both charges."

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said two other restrictions in the law also prevent prosecutors in his office from charging DWI offenders with enhanced penalties: having a lawyer-judge preside over the previous cases and filing a written waiver of counsel if the defendant represents himself.

Swingle said offenders convicted in municipal court must have a judge who is an attorney and a member of the Missouri Bar. And an accused DWI offender who represents himself in court also must file a written waiver of legal counsel, he said.

"We've seen people with 10 prior offenses," he said, "but because they were municipal convictions where the judge wasn't a lawyer-judge or the waiver of council wasn't given, those convictions don't count."

Adams' belief that half of the people he takes into custody have a previous conviction actually is better than the national rates.

Nearly nine out of 10 of those jailed for drinking-related offenses already had been convicted of the same offense at least one other time, according to a 1992 national report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

And the FBI recently reported that drinking-related offenses in 1993 accounted for 1.2 million arrests across the nation, the second-highest arrest totals. People arrested for larceny-theft topped the FBI's statistics with 1.25 million arrests.

MONDAY: Too many people die because of drinking and driving, but those deaths are declining.