23-05-2025
Nevada could soon charge DUI drivers who kill with second-degree murder
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A proposal to toughen Nevada's DUI laws could lead to murder charges for an intoxicated driver who kills, according to the bill's sponsor.
Senate Bill 304 would amend the state's vehicular homicide law to include all DUIs involving death, its sponsor, Republican State Sen. Jeff Stone, of Clark County, told a legislative committee Thursday.
The bill was stuck in a finance committee because the Nevada Department of Corrections estimates it will add more than $2 million to its budget due to the additional time offenders could serve in custody.
Stone's original proposal would have amended the law to lower the previous number of DUI convictions a person needed on their record for prosecutors to charge a driver with vehicular homicide. Under the proposal, on Thursday, prosecutors would be able to charge any DUI driver who kills with vehicular homicide.
The proposal would carry a possible sentence of 10 to 25 years or 10 to life, the same as the state's second-degree murder statute, said John Jones with the Nevada District Attorneys Association.
'It is the position of DAs across the state that getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle while intoxicated and proximately causing the death of another person meets this threshold,' Jones said Thursday.
Nevada prosecutors, including the Clark County District Attorney's Office, have tried to charge DUI drivers who kill a person and who speed and who drive with no care for another person's life, with murder, but the Nevada Supreme Court has ruled the DUI with death law is more appropriate.
Should the bill pass, Nevada would have a clear distinction between vehicular homicide and DUI resulting in substantial bodily harm, Jones and Stone said.
A second proposal, Senate Bill 457, which is part of Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo's crime bill, would also amend the law to charge DUI drivers who kill with second-degree murder.
Representatives for Senate and Assembly Democrats previously told 8 News Now that both proposals remain under consideration.
The legislative session ends June 2. Lawmakers will not reconvene, except for special circumstances at the request of the governor, until February 2027.
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