New Kansas DUI Bill Approved

            As of last week both the Kansas House and Senate unanimously approved a new DUI bill and sent it onto Governor Sam Brownback.  Primarily, the new law adds a restriction of attaching an ignition interlock device to any vehicle driven by a person charged with a DUI.  The bill concentrates on the number of convictions and continuously adds years required with the interlock device restriction for repeat convictions.  Every conviction now includes a "restriction" period, requiring the installation of an interlock device for a certain amount of time.
            Interestingly, individuals convicted for the fifth time will no longer have their driving privileges permanently revoked.  Rather, such individuals will have to permanently drive a vehicle equipped with an interlock device.  According to The Topeka Capital-Journal “[t]he rationale was that an estimated 80 percent of these offenders continue to drive illegally.”  Such devices will be required to be installed and maintained at the owner’s expense.
            The proposed bill also changes the way convictions are reported.  Thus, enforcement officers will be able to better track repeat offenders.  The Topeka-Capital Journal quoted Senator Jeff King saying, “Law enforcement is vigorously behind this bill.”

Reaction to Padilla v. Kentucky

Last blog discussed the Supreme Court holding in Padilla v. Kentucky that defense counsel failed to adequately represent a non-citizen client by not informing the client of deportation possibilities.  Since Padilla, defense attorneys have sought to better train themselves in immigration-related issues and other issues concerning non-citizen clients.  Defense attorneys around the nation have woken up to an understanding that their clients need to be ensured that they are “receiving the fullest and most competent legal advice”  Morales, Francisco. Practicing After Padilla: Where do we go from here? Assistant Federal Public Defender. S Dist. TX. 

Part of the list advocated on the Federal Defender website (www.fed.org) includes defense attorneys obtaining all possible information about their client’s legal status and family’s legal status.  This requirement also speaks to the clients as no matter how many questions an attorney asks his or her client, only the client can provide adequate information.  For a further discussion on this well formulated list and on how to better serve clients facing immigration issues see http://fd.org/odstb_ConstructImmigrationCON.htm.  The list advocated by the Federal Defender website is fairly straight forward and beneficial as a common outline when assisting a client.  The website also includes other beneficial resources to be used by both defense attorneys and their clients.