7 days ago
Nevada lawmakers fail to pass any DUI legislation this session
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Nevada lawmakers failed to pass any legislation this session to amend the state's DUI laws, even amid a push from Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and families who lost loved ones.
The 120-day legislative session ended Tuesday at midnight.
Nevada's DUI-with-death law carries a sentence of 2-20 years. A 1995 Nevada law requires judges to sentence a person to a range, meaning the maximum amount of time a DUI driver who kills can serve in prison before going before the parole board is eight years. The 8 News Now Investigators have found most drivers who kill serve those eight years or less, not 20.
An amended version of Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo's crime bill, Senate Bill 457, would have increased the maximum amount of prison time for a DUI driver who kills to 25 years.
Lombardo told the 8 News Now Investigators in March that he wanted to change the law to allow prosecutors to charge a DUI driver who kills with second-degree murder. The amended version would have carried a similar maximum sentence as the state's second-degree murder statute.
A second proposal, Senate Bill 304, would have amended the state's vehicular homicide law to include all DUIs involving death. As currently written, a driver must have three prior DUI convictions to face a vehicular-homicide charge. The proposal would have negated the prior conviction clause, carrying a possible sentence of 10 to 25 years or 10 to life, the same as the state's second-degree murder statute.
During a hearing on Senate Bill 304 in April, several families of crash victims pleaded with lawmakers to implement stricter penalties.
A third proposal, Senate Bill 309, would have changed the minimum jail requirements for a person's second DUI offense within seven years, amending a possible penalty from 10 days in jail to 20. The bill also lowered the blood-alcohol threshold for when a defendant would be ordered into treatment.
Lawmakers will not reconvene, except for special circumstances at the request of the governor, until February 2027.
Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo released a statement on the session, highlighting education funding, without mentioning the DUI proposals. Representatives for Democratic and Republican leadership did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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