Marc's anecdote brings up another point: Know the drunk-driving laws in your state (or the state in which you are driving) BEFORE you drink ANYTHING alcoholic and get behind the wheel, because once you're impaired you're at a disadvantage when trying to discern the correctness or incorrectness of a policeman's statements about the law.

In my state, yes, the penalties are tougher for an offender with a prior conviction, and a 3-year sentence for a repeat offender sounds similar to the law here. Was Marc a repeat offender, in this case? Not knowing the reason for which he was pulled over, nor what his blood-alcohol level was, I cannot say.

But one of the points of this thread is that ANY alcohol consumed will impair one's driving to SOME extent. Even "one beer" can affect your ability to concentrate and to react quickly enough to make a split-second maneuver that would avoid an accident.

When "GUEST,Frank Five" refreshed this thread, he said: "...one should be innocent until proven guilty and until a crime is committed." Agreed that, legally, one should be CONSIDERED innocent... but if you drink more than the legal limit and then drive, you ARE committing a crime whether you are convicted or simply arrested or even not caught!

And if you drink LESS than the legal limit and then drive, you may have a reason to proclaim your innocence of a crime in the courts, but it's still an unwise, dangerous thing to do. In the sense that one knowingly, purposefully does something that endangers his life and the lives of others, one is certainly not "innocent".

Best course of action to avoid legal hassles AND potential tragedy: don't drive if you have had ANYTHING alcoholic to drink, and don't drink ANYTHING alcoholic if you are going to drive the same day! No excuses, no attempts to "beat" the system or the machinery, no "just" one beer.