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MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) -
If you drink and drive and kill someone in Alabama while operating a car you will be sentenced from one to 10 years in prison. If you drink and drive and kill someone while operating a boat you will be sentenced from one to five years in prison. So if you take another human beings life while driving intoxicated on the water the law as it stands now punishes the accused only half as bad?
Not only does that not make any sense it needs to change now. For the record - innocent victims of homicide by way of drunk driving by car or boat are given a life sentence of death – not 5 or 10 years in prison like the perpetrators of the crime.
Elmore Country District Attorney, Randall Houston, Representative Barry Mask and State Senator Bryan Taylor also think the current law doesn't make any sense and they are working to get the law changed. Currently the law states that a homicide by vessel (boat) is an unclassified felony and these men are working towards getting it changed to a Class C felony with a maximum sentence the same as vehicular – ten years. We applaud their efforts and encourage you to call or write your state legislators to that you too agree with this effort to improve the law.
Any life lost is a tragedy and the punishment for those that take another's life should be severe and equal.
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