Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media
“In terms of serious felonies, we’ve talked about a number of them, however we haven’t talked about homicide yet. There are a number of different variations of a crime where somebody loses their life. Can you explain a little about that?”
Andrew Dósa – Criminal Defense Attorney – Alameda County, CA
“Sure. A homicide is not a crime. Homicide is, merely, that there was a death. A human had died. If you were driving down the street, and someone jumped off the crosswalk while you were driving and you have the green light, and you weren’t speeding, and they were inattentive and they stepped in front of you and they died, you would not be prosecuted for a crime. Because you didn’t do anything wrong. If you were drinking, then the presumption would be that you were under the influence of alcohol and could not control your vehicle adequately.
So, you would therefore be vulnerable to the possibility of not just a second degree involuntary or a voluntary manslaughter, but it might be that you are looking at something like murder. Because the presumption would be that you consciously drank, consciously took the wheel, with the two activities, drinking and driving overlapping. So, because of the presumption that you had the intent to drink and then drive, that is imputed to the behavior of your driving itself. I think it’s unconstitutional. I think it’s vulnerable to an appellate attack with the right kind of case, but that’s the presumption. With every DUI case, there’s a paragraph where the person is told, ‘if you do this in the future, you could be charged with murder’.”
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