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Committee reduces penalty pathway for certain pre-2015 lifetime driving suspensions
Summary
House Bill 1554 (as amended) would reclassify some pre-2015 lifetime driving suspensions to a lower felony level to address disproportionate penalties for drivers whose suspensions predate 2015 criminal-code revisions; the committee passed the measure 13-0.
The House Courts and Criminal Code Committee voted 13-0 to pass House Bill 1554, a bill that would reduce the criminal classification for some individuals who currently face lifetime driver suspensions that stem from laws prior to the 2015 criminal-code reforms.
Representative Bascom said the statute change is intended to address a proportionality gap that left some people with lifetime suspensions based on older code language even though subsequent reforms narrowed the circumstances that trigger a lifetime suspension. “This is an attempt to capture those people pre 02/2015 that still have that lifetime suspension and bring them into a level 6, which is consistent with an HTV,” Bascom told the committee.
The sponsor and supporters described examples of people who received lifetime suspensions under the prior law for repeated driving-while-suspended offenses even when their current conduct would not meet today’s standard for a lifetime penalty. Proponents, including the Indiana Public Defender Council, said the change reduces disproportionate exposure to high felony penalties for otherwise nonviolent driving offenses.
Chris Daniels of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorney’s Council said IPAC had previously opposed the bill but accepted a sponsor amendment; with the amendment IPAC no longer opposed. Michael Moore of the Public Defender Council voiced support, saying the bill “addresses a disproportionate feature in the law” and will reduce excessive penalties in some cases.
The committee accepted the sponsor’s amendment to align the effective date and penalty structure with the 2015 code changes and passed the bill 13-0. House Bill 1554 will proceed to the House floor.
