Tennessee’s DUI law has changed once again to further focus serious prosecution efforts on repeat DUI offenders. As of July 1, 2016, TCA 55-10-402(a)(5) creates a class C felony for a person convicted of a 6th or subsequent offense DUI, for people with 5 or more prior convictions for DUI, or other more serious alcohol related crimes. This new felony classification will continue to carry the minimum required sentence of 150 days and the same 8 year driver’s license suspension. However, the maximum sentence will increase from 10 years in prison for people with no or one prior felony conviction and up to 15 years for those with multiple prior felonies.
What is unique about this offense is the significant possibility of a serious sentence in a state penitentiary for those convicted of DUI, but not actually causing harm to others as a result of their actions. Previously, the maximum sentence was 2 years for those with no prior felonies. While technically a felony sentence, it was never sufficiently long to actually cause a person convicted of DUI to wind up serving hard time in state penitentiary. Now, they would be serving alongside those traditionally convicted of murder, rape, child molestation and serious drug offenses. Under this law, addicts with multiple convictions whose actions haven’t yet caused actual harm will be serving their sentence side by side with the most hardened criminals in our state. For those with loved ones with addictions, now is the time to act and intervene and those with addictions to seek help before what was before a local jail sentence becomes hard time.
In the defense of the citizen accused,