Sentencing Drivers who cause Death while Under the Influence

Sentencing Drivers who cause Death while Under the Influence
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Sentencing Drivers who cause Death while Under the Influence
Drunk driving, the act of operating or driving a vehicle while under alcoholic influence, is illegal in all jurisdictions in the world. It is outlawed in all states in the United States, although enforcement and penalties vary from state to state. In the sentencing of drivers who cause death to third parties as a result of drunken driving, manslaughter, sometimes known as vehicular manslaughter, most drivers are charged with manslaughter. This is because the prosecution takes into account the fact that the defendant did not cause death intentionally, nor had meditated to kill a person. Accordingly, lack of malice, ill motive, or intent to harm/kill another person through a road accident reduces the charge from possible murder to manslaughter. However, a closer scrutiny of the elements that constitute manslaughter and murder would indicate that a driver who kills a person while under the influence of alcohol is guilty of murder. This essay highlights the facts that shows that driving while under the influence of alcohol qualifies to malicious aforethought to cause injury or endanger the lives of pedestrians, passengers, or other motorists.
Causing death through drunk-driving has the element of malicious aforethought because the driver is aware that driving while under the influence of alcohol is dangerous to his life and those of other road users. The deliberate decision to drive while drunk weakens the offender's possible defense line that the accident occurred in circumstances beyond his or her control because he or she was intoxicated (Hersh, 1997, p. 46). The relevant point the prosecution should raise in not whether the defendant could have controlled the vehicle while drunk, but whether he could have prevented the situation by either not drinking, or not driving after drinking and getting intoxicated above the legal limit. The bottom line is that all drivers know that drunk-driving is not only illegal, but also dangerous. In this light, the driver's decision to drive while fully aware that one, he is breaking the law by drunk-driving, and two, he is endangering the lives of others, amounts to deliberate careless driving, which in turn suggests malicious aforethought by driving with full knowledge of the risks involved.
Defense attorneys often argue that intoxicated drivers charged with causing fatal accidents do not meet the threshold for murder because they do not know their victims to have any conflict with them, and do not operate like a serial killer who plans to kill prior to committing the crime. However, motive to kill or having a grudge with the victim are not necessary to suggest malice, or the mental state constituting intent to cause harm. On the contrary, “when a defendant 'with wanton disregard for human life, does an act that involves a high degree o...