Without changes in Pennsylvania's laws, the father said, "more people will die needlessly. His son Liam, 24, was killed last year by a repeatedly convicted drunk driver. Patrick Crowley, of Chester County, is also scheduled to testify. Stedman is scheduled to be the first witness at legislative hearings Monday to strengthen DUI laws. Stedman, who brought murder charges against a repeat drunk driver who killed Meredith Demko, 18, in July while intoxicated and high on heroin. "There isn't any question that not only is the time ripe, we are overdue for putting some new laws on the books," said Lancaster County District Attorney Craig W. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say studies show that DUI rearrests fall two-thirds once the devices are mandated. Thirty-one states require judges to order use of the devices after a first conviction, but not Pennsylvania. Nor is Pennsylvania aggressive about the use of "interlock" devices, which block offenders from starting their cars if they are drunk. New Jersey does not pull licenses on the spot either, but its laws give courts and law enforcement more tools to deal with repeat drunk drivers. One reason for Pennsylvania's failure is that unlike 41 other states, it does not immediately suspend the licenses of drivers who fail sobriety tests. Every conviction after that is supposed to trigger at least one more year behind bars. State law mandates 90-day sentences for anyone convicted twice of driving that drunk. 16 percent, Pennsylvania's highest grade of intoxication. That was one of five times in less than a year that he was popped for drunken driving, and each time his blood-alcohol level exceeded. 30 - more than three times the legal limit. At Bryn Mawr Hospital, Lawless would record a blood-alcohol level of. When Officer Kenneth Piree smashed a back window and unlocked the door, he could not stir Lawless or even find his pulse.īeside the frothing driver lay the nearly drained bottle, wrapped in a brown paper bag, as well as two airline-size Seagram's empties. Eleven minutes before, the Villanova lawyer had bought a bottle of Seagram's VO in a State Store on Lancaster Avenue, and witnesses reported seeing Lawless' car rolling slowly out of the parking lot, crossing the street, and bumping the curb. It was 12:47 on a steaming Friday afternoon in July 2011. Joseph Lawless was slumped over the wheel of his black Mercedes SUV when the Radnor patrolman rapped hard on the window.
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