New Harsher PA DUI Laws Signed

Pennsylvania’s Governor Wolf just signed a series of harsher DUI laws known as “Deana’s Law.” Deana Eckman was a young woman killed by a 6 time convicted drunk driver, David Strowhouer, who crossed into oncoming traffic while passing another car and hit Deana’s car head-on, killing her. Had Strowhouer received consecutive prison time for his DUI’s instead of concurrent time, he would have still been in jail when the accident occurred. As a result, Deana’s parents pushed for passage of “Deana’s Law.”

Deana’s Law makes two primary changes to the DUI laws. The new laws impact both grading and sentencing. Anyone convicted of a DUI with 2 or more previous DUI convictions will have the offense upgraded to a Felony of the Third Degree, which carries a prison sentence of up to 7 years. Similarly, anyone convicted of DUI with 3 or more prior DUI convictions will have the offense upgraded to a Felony of the Second Degree, which carries up to a 10 year prison sentence.

It is worth noting that a prison sentence can be substantially more of less than the aforementioned numbers, which are just the statutory maximum sentence for that DUI count. Other counts could be added to make a longer sentence, and a Judge could certainly give a much lower sentence, as is normally the case.

The second major category of change from Deana’s Law is that a Judge may no longer sentence a person to concurrent time after the second conviction. Previously it was very common for a person convicted of two DUI offenses that occurred near in time to serve a sentence for one and then get credit for that time on the other offense as well. That is called concurrent time. The new law requires consecutive time, meaning that each offense would receive a separate sentence that must be served separately.