Senate passes bill to change method of determining prior convictions

The Senate has passed SB 0844 as amended to override the Conway and Bowen cases and change the method for counting prior DUI offenses.
Beginning July 1, 2010, if an offender is arrested and is a fourth offender, he will be a fourth offender when he is tried and convicted no matter how long it takes.
The amended language tells us to claculate times from the time of the present violation (arrest) and look back 10 years for other violations (arrests) that resulted in a conviction. The 20 year look back period then comes into play.
If the prior arrest occurred 11 years ago and the conviction for the arrest happened 9 years ago, that prior will not count!
However if the prior arrest happened 9 years ago and the current conviction occurs 11years later, that will count!
This eliminates the incentive to delay cases to have priors fall off the record.
The House has already passed this bill. It is expected they will conform to the Senate amendment today and the bill will be sent to the Governor for his signature.
Read the amended bill at: http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/106/Amend/SA1538.pdf

You can watch the video for clarification of the intent of the Senate at:
http://tnga.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=63&clip_id=3155
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