THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 26, 1995 TAG: 9510260481
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
The Virginia Court of Appeals said Wednesday that the state can suspend an intoxicated motorist's drivers license for seven days and later prosecute a drunken driving charge.
The 8-1 ruling upheld the so-called ``administrative license suspension'' law that the General Assembly passed to combat drunken driving.
David Tench, who was arrested on a drunken driving charge in Henrico County, challenged the law. He claimed the license suspension and subsequent criminal prosecution violated the Constitution's double jeopardy clause, which says a defendant cannot be punished twice for the same crime.
The appeals court ruled, however, that the administrative suspension of a driver's license is not ``punishment'' within the meaning of the double jeopardy clause.
Chief Judge Norman K. Moon wrote that the purpose of the law was ``not to punish the offender but to remove from the highways an operator who is a potential danger to other users.''
Attorney General James S. Gilmore III cheered the ruling as ``an important victory for safer streets.''
``This decision enables the commonwealth to continue to protect innocent citizens from drivers who are arrested for drunk driving by immediately taking the licenses of those arrested,'' he said.
Some local judges have declared the administrative suspension law unconstitutional, prompting authorities in those localities to quit enforcing the law. Gilmore said the appeals court ruling ``will mean consistent application or the law across the commonwealth.''
The ruling could be appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court. Tench's attorney, Theresa Rhinehart, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
In a dissenting opinion, Judge James W. Benton Jr. said he disagreed with the majority's ruling that the law is purely remedial and not punitive.
``I would hold that although the license suspension statute has remedial characteristics, it also has a punitive aspect that constitutes punishment for the purpose of double jeopardy analysis,'' he wrote.
KEYWORDS: APPEALS COURT DRUNKEN DRIVING by CNB