OWI 3rd and Heidi's Law

On January 3, 2007, Michigan passed a law that makes it a felony to have three drunk driving convictions regardless of the number of years since the prior conviction. Known as Heidis Law, the statute removed prior provisions that made it a felony to have three drunk driving convictions within ten years. If a person has two prior drunk driving convictions, it is strongly advised that the person does not consume any amount of alcohol before operating a motor vehicle. Even if the driver is not impaired or intoxicated, the risk is too high and the penalties too severe.

Several challenges have been raised by defense attorney to Heidis Law, claiming that the new law imposes ex post facto penalties. These challenges have been largely unsuccessful and future prospects of successfully challenging the law do not appear encouraging. In some instances, however, defense lawyers have been successful in reducing felony charges to misdemeanors when the number of years since a prior conviction has been extremely long.

Along with uncapping the number of years for prior convictions, Heidis Law also relaxed the manner by which a prosecutor can prove prior convictions. A prior conviction can now be established through a litany of unreliable sources. Although the trend in Michigan is to permit introduction of unverified information for purposes of enhancing drunk driving charges to felonies, a large body of federal law has been growing in opposition to this trend.