Mo. Supreme Court ruling could affect local DWI cases

In early March, the Supreme Court ruled that municipal court cases in which a defendant receives a suspended imposition of sentence can no longer be cited as a prior DWI offense during the trial phase of future DWI proceedings.

"This rule isn't as broad as everyone thinks it is," said Welborn. "Mainly this deals with DWI charges in the city and won't have much affect on state DWI charges."

Suspended imposition of sentence means that the defendant remains on probation for a predetermined amount of time before the sentence is carried out and is re-evaluated at the end of the probation term based on his or her behavior.

This ruling means that if a prosecutor wanted to use a previous case to show prior history of multiple counts of DWI -- resulting in harsher penalties -- he or she won't be able to if a suspended imposition of sentence were used in a particular case.

"This is just one of those cases where they make the rules and we have to follow them," said Welborn. "But, on the other hand, Judge Limbaugh is being considered for a federal judgeship right now and to put it simply, if he thought there was something wrong with the current law, then there probably was."

Sacha Champion may be reached by e-mail at schampion@dailystatesman.com