0001|                       HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 21
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0002|     43RD LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - SECOND SESSION, 1998
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0003|                            INTRODUCED BY
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0004|                          JOE NESTOR CHAVEZ
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0005|     
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0006|                                   
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0007|     
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0008|     
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0009|     
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0010|                           A JOINT MEMORIAL
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0011|     REQUESTING THAT THE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF THE COURTS WORK
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0012|     WITH MUNICIPAL, MAGISTRATE AND DISTRICT JUDGES TO USE THE
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0013|     STEERING COLUMN INTERLOCK SYSTEM TO PREVENT MULTIPLE-DWI
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0014|     OFFENDERS FROM DRIVING.
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0015|     
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0016|          WHEREAS, driving while intoxicated offenses have received
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0017|     extensive legislative and social attention in recent years;
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0018|     and
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0019|          WHEREAS, several well-publicized accidents involving
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0020|     multiple-DWI offenders have galvanized the public's
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0021|     frustration and anger with government's seeming lack of
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0022|     ability to adequately respond to the problem; and
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0023|          WHEREAS, too many lives are tragically damaged, if not
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0024|     ended, by the chronic problem of DWI; and
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0025|          WHEREAS, drinking and driving is a problem that crosses
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0001|     social, psychological, medical, political and legal
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0002|     institutional boundaries and each public servant touched by
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0003|     the problem must accept the responsibility to the best of his
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0004|     ability and conscientiously; and
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0005|          WHEREAS, technological advances in the design of motor
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0006|     vehicles have resulted in equipment being manufactured that
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0007|     prevents an intoxicated person from starting the engine of a
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0008|     vehicle or operating that vehicle; and
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0009|          WHEREAS, the steering column interlock system is one of
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0010|     those technologies that seems to work under certain
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0011|     circumstances; and
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0012|          WHEREAS, the judiciary plays a critical role in the
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0013|     administration of justice relative to DWI penalties;
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0014|          NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE
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0015|     STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the administrative office of the
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0016|     courts be requested to work with municipal, magistrate and
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0017|     district judges to use the steering column interlock system in
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0018|     sentencing of DWI offenders and to prevent multiple-DWI
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0019|     offenders from driving under the influence and placing
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0020|     citizens at risk; and
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0021|          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
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0022|     transmitted to the director of the administrative office of
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0023|     the courts and to the chief justice of the supreme court.
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0024|                                - 2 -
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