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Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20130&cosponId=13893
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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: January 10, 2014 02:38 PM
From: Senator John C. Rafferty, Jr.
To: All Senate members
Subject: Repeat DUI Offenses- Correction to Language in Vehicle Code
 
In the near future I am planning to introduce legislation that will correct language that the Superior Court has determined to be technically flawed in our Vehicle Code pertaining to certain repeat DUI Offenders.

The necessity for this legislation was demonstrated by a Pennsylvania Superior Court decision in Commonwealth v. Masua. In that case, an individual was charged with a second offense DUI graded as a Tier 3 due to the defendant’s refusal to submit to chemical testing. The sentencing court, as has been done in literally thousands of cases in this Commonwealth, graded the offense as a first degree misdemeanor pursuant to Section 3803(b)(4) of Title 75 (Vehicle Code) and thus sentenced the defendant to minimum 90 days incarceration to a maximum of 5 years, the statutory mandatory minimum sentence for such an offense.

The Defendant filed an appeal to the Superior Court and for the first time argued that the maximum sentence pursuant to Section 3803(a) of Title 75 (Vehicle Code) for this offense was six months. Essentially what the Defendant argued was that the use of the term “Notwithstanding” in Section 3803(a) rendered all of Section 3803(b) null and void and thus the Defendant was not subjected to the more serious and appropriate penalties of Section 3803(b). The Commonwealth aptly argued that this interpretation of the statute would render “an entire statutory subsection to be a legal nullity.” Unfortunately the Superior Court sided with the Defendant and essentially held that we as a legislature drafted a subsection of the Vehicle Code that had no legal meaning or effect. As we all know that could have never been the intention. My legislation would replace the existing language in Section 3803(a) with language taken directly from the Superior Court opinion.

A copy of the Superior Court decision can be found at:

http://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Superior/out/J-A01012-13o%20-%201014706671644690.pdf




Introduced as SB1239