Is Enhanced DUI Sentence for Repeat Offender’s Refusal of Blood Alcohol Test Unconstitutional?
State of Ohio v. Corey Hoover, Case no. 2007-2295 3rd District Court of Appeals (Union County) ISSUE: Does a state law imposing a longer minimum jail term for a repeat DUI offender who refuses to take a blood alcohol test than for a similar offender who submits to the test violate the defendant’s constitutional right to withhold consent to a warrantless search? BACKGROUND: A provision of Ohio’s “drunk driving” law, R.C. 4511.19(A)(2), expressly prohibits a person who has a prior DUI conviction within the past 20 years from refusing to submit to a blood alcohol test if he or she is arrested for a subsequent DUI violation. The sentencing portion of the DUI statute doubles from 10 to 20 days the mandatory minimum jail sentence that must be imposed against a repeat DUI offender if that person refused a blood alcohol test at the time of their second arrest. In this case Corey Hoover, a Union County motorist with a prior DUI conviction, was stopped by a deputy sheriff in September 2006 for a
