How many drunk driving offenses does it take to send a man to prison for life? Eight, in the case of a Texas country and western singer, says the Austin American-Statesman. Gary Gibbs, 49, will not be eligible for parole for 30 years under a jury verdict yesterday. “How did this happen?” prosecutor Shawn Dick asked jurors. “Why (is he) still out on the road? Why hasn’t somebody done something about it? Today, you are that somebody, and it is time to do something about it.”
Prosecutors said they had offered Gibbs a 20-year sentence if he agreed to plead guilty, and he refused. Gibbs has served more than four years in prison for DWI convictions and was released in 2001. Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley said Texas lawmakers could do more to bolster rehabilitation programs in prisons: “Ten years ago, Texans were promised we would have 12,000 treatment beds in our prisons and throughout our system. Every single session the Legislature has cut that budget. Sometimes, you have people like Mr. Gibbs because the Legislature does not fund that treatment.”
Link: http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/05/27driver.html