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A comment on Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?. Parent comment

Re:Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work? by Qz on Monday April 26, 2010 @04:50PM (#1295976)
Right, and I believe that educating people about the real risks involved with drunk driving will prevent more of those deaths than punishing people who have already demonstrated the poor judgment in doing that in the first place.

I fully agree with permanently barring someone from driving after they kill someone while drunk driving, but tacking on 'pre-meditated' to the original crime is nonsense.

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Re:Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work? by protomyth on Monday April 26, 2010 @05:15PM (#1296103)
Why is it nonsense? The person made the decision to drink and drive. Someone is dead or injured and the person causing the pain needs to be punished.

Education doesn't really get us there, people know it is bad and do it anyway. Look at the repeat stats on DUI, suspended licenses don't deter as much as people wished.

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Re:Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work? by Qz on Monday April 26, 2010 @05:25PM (#1296155)
Pre-meditation has a specific legal meaning that really doesn't apply to typical drunk driving. Something more along the lines of what you're talking about is the Felony murder rule:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_murder_rule

Unfortunately drunk driving is a misdemeanor and doesn't qualify.

Just to clarify, by nonsense I'm referring specifically to the idea of arbitrarily applying legal terms to situations where they aren't valid for punitive purposes. I disagree with harsher punishment as a crime deterrent, but I don't think harsher punishment itself is 'nonsense'.

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