Criminal Law Blog
August 24, 2005
DWI: Texas Legislature Says “People Can’t Change.”
Up until September 1, 2005, there has been a “10 year rule” in Texas.
The 10 year rule meant, for example, that for DWIs committed in Texas, if your last arrest for a DWI was more than 10 years before your most recent DWI arrest, then the DWI conviction that resulted from that old arrest could not usually be used to enhance the new arrest.
It was the Texas Legislature’s way of saying “yes, some alcoholics are recovering alcoholics.”
Not anymore.
As of September 1, 2005, the law can reach back as far as the prosecutor wants it to use any prior conviction to enhance.
Doesn’t that seem a little strange, given how the governor before Bush was, herself, a recovering alcoholic?
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