immediately from the public index causing us to lose the trail of the case. It is not ideal to have a category that includes such a variety of outcomes, but they all essentially share the same situation of our not being able to determine what happened to the case. “Pled Down to a Lesser Charge” means that the accused was not found guilty of DUI or DUAC but was ultimately found guilty to a lesser charge, predominantly reckless driving, stemming from the same incident. As a technical point, whereas this would be referred to as amending the original charge in other states, it is common practice in South Carolina for the original DUI charge to be dismissed (or nol prossed) with a new charge then written for the lesser offense. DUAC is a separate statute (56-5-2933) from the state’s DUI law (56-5-2930) but carries essentially equivalent penalties. If a subsequent DUI charge is made after a previous DUAC conviction, that DUI is a second offense. In our discussion with our experts in the system, it was unanimous that a DUAC conviction should be counted the same as a DUI conviction for the purposes of our data analysis. They explained that some people will accept a plea deal to a guilty for DUAC charge because 1) the offender can say they have never had a DUI (technically) if asked and 2) the offender can get the original DUI charge expunged so it will only show up on a driving history but not a criminal history. Given the challenges of getting a DUI conviction in South Carolina, MADD SC sees that getting an agreement to plea to DUAC makes sense given the penalties are essentially equivalent. An additional challenge to analyzing the data is due to the difficult nature of navigating the online public index records. When a case is pled down in South Carolina, as a large percentage are, the original ticket number ceases being used and a new one is opened. However, the old ticket number doesn’t reference what the new ticket number is, so we must undergo a search for the offender in the records. For an unusual name, that may be easy, but for a “Mark Smith,” for example, that could mean a long review of lots of offenders with that name to find where the trail of that original DUI ticket continues. Sometimes we cannot find that record. We also often use the public index to know about when DUI cases will be heard in certain courts, but that searching is incredibly time consuming. If there are missing cases or inaccuracies, it affects the accuracy and thoroughness of our work. It is a limitation that we have to work within.
Key Expert Input
The data collected directly from monitored cases that we share in this report is compelling in many ways, but our data alone are not sufficient to fully grasp the landscape of DUI prosecution and adjudication in these areas. During the spring and summer months of 2020, MADD South Carolina held five “stakeholder roundtable” discussions that included stakeholders from all seven focus counties. Invitees included judges and magistrates, solicitor’s office staff, law enforcement, and key community partners. MADD staff presented key data to the attendees and then engaged in very
10
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog