The measure now heads to the full House for debate and vote.

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The Van Buren police said the mail vehicle was recovered by the US Postal Service following the DWI arrest.

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Representative Dan Greenberg, from Little Rock, said his legislation stems from a woman found guilty of her tenth DWI in Arkansas and sentenced to a minimum 20 months in jail, yet she was released before serving twelve months. Greenberg said that someone with ten DWI arrests “should be serving some serious time”.

According to Arkansas DWI law, a fourth offense and every subsequent offense for driving while intoxicated is a felony. Department of Corrections regulations classify Felony DWI as a non-violent offense, thus making offenders eligible for early release under Arkansas Emergency Powers Act. That Act was passed in response to chronic over crowding of Arkansas jails, and it was expanded in 2003 allowing non-violent criminals who have served at least six months of their sentence to be eligible for parole when there is a backlog of more than 500 state prisoners.

Greenberg stated that denying early release to felony DWI offenders would not create over-crowding because there are very few multiple DWI offenders. He went on to say that motorists with four or more Arkansas DWI arrests pose a danger to the general public. According to state police records, 46% of all traffic fatalities in Arkansas last year involved alcohol or drugs.

Other legislators propose increasing the penalties for AK DWI to require offenders to serve their sentence before being eligible for early release under the Emergency Powers Act. Greenberg said keeping felony DWI convicts in jail is only a short-term solution. He says Arkansas will only become safer after increasing jail capacity.

In addition, repeat DWI offenders must install an ignition interlock device in their vehicle. Such a device requires the driver to breathe into a tube and if alcohol over a set blood-alcohol limit is detected, the car cannot be started.

Senate Bill 930 was signed at the Greene County Courthouse in Springfield, Arkansas Thursday morning.

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Fields was sentenced to six years in jail in 2003 after being found guilty of a fourth-offense DWI in Arkansas. He began the clemency application process and was waiting for a parole date when Gov. Huckabee commuted his sentence, making Fields immediately eligible for release. Citing jail overcrowding, the long-time Republican Party donor was freed despite having served only one year of his sentence.

A director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving stated that Fields is “a menace among us”, adding that she opposed Mike Huckabee’s clemency action in 2004. Fields was also charged with drunk driving and refusal to submit to a breath-test in April 2006. He plead guilty in that case and was fined and ordered to pay court costs.

Fields, from Van Buren, Arkansas, was charged with DWI again on February 1, 2008 after Fort Smith police spotted him weaving in and out of his lane. Fields admitted to having consumed four beers at a nightclub. With the guilty plea to his most recent drinking and driving offense, Fields was sentenced to 14 days in the Sebastian County Detention Center and he faces a parole revocation hearing.

The guilty plea to driving while intoxicated was entered the same day Mike Huckabee was seeking votes as a Republican presidential candidate in the Super Tuesday primaries.

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A veteran police officer was involved, and the police department issued a statement saying, “officers are trained to know the difference between a person who is sick and one who is drunk and if they’re sick an officer would have called the paramedics”. A spokesperson went on to say that “once you arrest someone, they can’t be unarrested”. During booking at the Dale County Jail, however, officers noted something was wrong with Bludsworth and sought treatment for him.

The police then dropped the charge of drunk driving in Arkansas though Bludsworth still had to post a $1,000 bond and he will have to make a court appearance. Bludsworth registered blood alcohol content of 0.00 during a breath test.

No disciplinary action is pending against the arresting officer.

LITTLE ROCK -- The Arkansas Court of Appeals on Wednesday reversed the drunken-driving conviction of a Washington County man who turned on his car's engine using a remote device.

Judges ruled that there wasn't enough evidence to convict Charles Franklin Rogers, who was found asleep in his car by Fayetteville officers in January 2004. Rogers was convicted by a Washington County Circuit Court of driving while intoxicated.

Deputy Washington County Prosecuting Attorney Charles Duell said there's a good chance the Arkansas Attorney General's Office will appeal the ruling to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

"I knew that it was a new issue that hadn't been heard down there and I knew it was going to be close, but I was surprised that it was reversed," Duell said Wednesday.

Duell was encouraged by strong dissent from two justices on the appeals court. The majority on the court seemed to believe that the keys were what was primarily at issue, Duell said. The dissenting justices and prosecutors took the position that Rogers' control and management of the vehicle was the critical issue.

Rogers' vehicle's engine was running, exhaust was coming from the tailpipe, and its headlights and taillights were on, the court's decision said. Police said Rogers' foot appeared to be on the brake pedal.

Rogers had testified that he was driven back to his car by a friend and started the engine of his vehicle by pressing a remote-start button. Rogers testified that once he entered his car, the keys were never in the ignition but rather on the floorboard.

During his trial, Rogers had the electronics technician who installed the remote start feature say there was no way Rogers could drive the vehicle without putting the keys in the ignition.

The remote start, the technician said, only turns on the headlights, taillights and accessories such as the radio and heater.

Duell said law enforcement officials are concerned drunken drivers could start taking advantage of technology, and what could be considered a loophole in the law regarding whether the keys have to be in the ignition for the driver to be in control of a car, to beat drunken-driving charges.

In the majority opinion, Judge John B. Robbins wrote that prosecutors failed to prove that Rogers was in actual control of the vehicle when police found him.

"The trial court did not find that the keys were in the ignition, nor did any evidence show that the keys were in the ignition," Robbins wrote.

The decision said the judges "are powerless to declare an act to come within the criminal laws by implication."

Robbins was joined by Judges Terry Crabtree, Karen R. Baker and Andree Layton Roaf. Judges Sam Bird and Wendell L. Griffen dissented.

Griffen, in his dissent, said that Rogers posed just as much of a "menace" to the public as a drunken person passed out behind the wheel with the keys in the ignition.

"Drunk drivers are, by definition, drunk starters, whether they start their vehicles by auto-start or by conventional means," Griffen wrote. "A driver who chooses to enjoy the benefits of auto-start remote technology has no right to expect an exemption from prosecution for DWI when he chooses to become legally intoxicated, start his engine, and get behind the wheel of his vehicle."

Duell said Rogers was convicted previously of driving while intoxicated.

The Morning News' Ron Wood contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.nwaonline.net/

The actual wording of the bill says, "The DWI license plate shall be a bright pink color that is easily distinguishable from other license plates issued in the state."

Such ‘shame laws’ seem to be in vogue now, though their effectiveness in diminishing drunk driving is debated. Rep. Pam Adcock says however, "I think the only one that would be offended would be the drunk driver and I'm not worried about his feelings. If someone contacts me and says that they need help then I'll try to help them, try to get them in some kind of treatment, but as far as them being embarrassed that is the furthest from my mind.”

Adcock’s bill would also require ignition interlock devices be installed in vehicles owned by someone convicted of three or more Arkansas DWI cases. Such a device disables a car’s ignition when alcohol is detected. The pink license plate would have to remain on a car as long as the interlock device is required.

The House Transportation Committee of the Arkansas Legislature has scheduled debate on the bill this week.