Reckless Driving Attorney Chesterfield Va

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Fanny v. Commonwealth

Facts:

Defendant argued that the trial court erred in denying her proposed jury instruction that reckless driving Chesterfield Va, an offense set forth in Va. Code Ann. § 46.2-869, was a lesser-included offense of reckless driving by speed. The appellate court disagreed. Improper driving was not a lesser-included offense of reckless driving by speed. Every commission of reckless driving by speed did not also constitute improper driving. In addition, improper driving was not composed entirely of the elements of reckless driving by speed. Improper driving required an additional finding of slight culpability, an element excluded from § 46.2-862. The plain and unambiguous reading of § 46.2-869 made clear that authority rested with the trial judge and not the jury to make the lesser degree of culpability determination. In the alternative, an attorney for the Commonwealth may have reduced a reckless driving charge to improper driving at any time before the court's decision. Thus, only the trial judge, or the prosecutor before the verdict was rendered, had the prerogative to reduce a reckless driving charge to improper driving under § 46.2-869.

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Holdings:

The Virginia Court made the following holding:

· For a defendant to be found guilty of reckless driving by speed under Va. Code Ann. § 46.2-862, the Commonwealth must prove that the defendant was driving on a highway in the Commonwealth, and was driving (i) at a speed of twenty miles per hour or more in excess of the applicable maximum speed limit or (ii) in excess of eighty miles per hour regardless of the applicable maximum speed limit. Improper driving, Va. Code Ann. § 46.2-869, is not a lesser-included offense of reckless driving by speed, Va. Code Ann. § 46.2-862. Every commission of reckless driving by speed does not also constitute a commission of improper driving. In addition, improper driving is not composed entirely of the elements of reckless driving by speed. Improper driving requires an additional finding of slight culpability, an element excluded from the reckless driving by speed statute.

Reckless Driving Attorney Chesterfield Va

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