DWI Legal Definition Alaska
Reader’s Question:
A lot has been said about DWI but all I know is that a driver can be charged for it if he/she is driving drunk. It still does not seem clear to me as to how DWI is being defined, so what is the legal definition of DWI?
Eleanor
Anchorage, AK
The legal definition of driving while intoxicated or DWI is driving without having the normal use of mental and physical faculties because of the introduction of alcohol, a controlled substance, a drug, an illegal drug, a combination of two or more of those substances, or any other substances into the body. DWI can also be legally defined as driving with blood alcohol content at or above the legal limit of 0.08%.
In any DWI case, which includes those in Alaska, the prosecutor only needs to prove one of the three ways to obtain a DWI conviction. The person has therefore the normal use of his/her physical faculties if there is no breath or blood test. However, a jury may believe that the individual lost the normal use of their mental faculties, thus they should find the person guilty. If the evidence in a DWI court trial only shows the person lost one of the normal uses of his/her physical and mental faculties and not together, it means that he/she is not intoxicated. An individual doesn’t necessarily have to be drunk to be intoxicated which means that he/she becomes intoxicated before becoming drunk.