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Alabama DUI Lawyer :
Then comes the case of a man who had seven drunken-driving convictions within 15 years, but only three within a five-year period. He was sentenced for committing a felony. He appealed. And the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reluctantly ruled that his sentence should be reduced.

Legal Term "FELONY"

The term felony is used for "very serious" crimes, whereas misdemeanors are considered to be less serious offenses. It is principally used in criminal law in the United States legal system.

The distinction between a felony and misdemeanor has been abolished by some common law jurisdictions (e.g. Crimes Act 1958 (Vic., Australia) s. 332B(1), Crimes Act 1900 (NSW., Australia) s. 580E(1)); other jurisdictions maintain the distinction, notably those of the United States. Those jurisdictions which have abolished the distinction generally adopt some other classification, e.g. in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, the crimes are divided into summary offences and indictable offences.

DUI & Driving Under The Influence:
US DUI Match? :
The USA has one of the worst DUI driving accident rates in the developed world while having lower to mid-range rates of alcohol consumption.

Driving Drunk Statistics :
According to the statistics, an increase in handed-out citations could have led to a decrease in motor vehicle accidents during the 2006-2007 fiscal year. While citations went down (930 to 773) from year one to year two, the numbers ballooned to 1,547 during year three.

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Glossary of Legal Terms :: Alabama Lawyers

What is a DUI? :
The various versions of driving under the influence generally constitute a misdemeanor (punishable by up to one year in jail) . However, the offense may be elevated to a felony (punishable by a longer term in state prison) if the incident caused serious injury (felony DUI), death (vehicular manslaughter or vehicular homicide), or extensive property damage (a state specified dollar amount) or if the defendant has a designated number of prior DUI convictions within a given time period (commonly, 3 prior convictions within 7 years). California, which is being followed by a growing number of states, now charges second-degree murder where the legal state of mind of malice exists -- that is, where the defendant exhibited a reckless indifference to the lives of others.