Que Dios te bendiga siempre
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/-268959--.html
Todd Spitzer chided me for failing to point out in my column about the D.A.'s Vehicular Homicide Unit that it has a relatively new tool that helps D.A.'s charge some DUI deaths as murder rather than manslaughter.
Under AB 808 (uh, Spitzer), the Steve Ambriz Act, every Californian who wants a driver's license signs a form that states he or she has been "advised that being under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or both, impairs the ability to safely operate a motor vehicle," and if they do so anyway and someone is killed, they can be charged with murder.
Orange Councilman Steve Ambriz died in 2006, killed in a car wreck by a woman high on meth, but he lives on in a law that bears his name.
A year later T-Rack instituted the special unit. Generally, it charges murder when the driver had special knowledge, like a prior DUI or, perhaps, signing something like the Ambriz warning. (Spitzer implied the D.A.'s Office had purposely left out the Ambriz Act in its interviews after the Adenhart -trial verdict. Not so. I simply ran out of room.)
Ironically, it is unclear whether the Ambriz Act would have made a difference in the Ambriz case. Ward had no prior DUI's. Signing the Ambriz advisement alone probably isn't sufficient special knowledge to trigger a murder charge, according to Susan Price , who heads the unit. Because implementation of the Act has been slow, she has yet to have a defendant who has signed the advisement and thus hasn't yet made a judgment call. But she envisions that a defendant who signed it and had some special class might qualify for a murder charge.
Ambriz has another legacy. Orange two weeks ago signed a $567,000 contract to install a median guardrail on Santiago Canyon Road.
Contact: 714-796-4994 or fmickadeit@ocregister.com
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