From Pioneer Press
MILWAUKEE — A Wisconsin state senator has renewed her call for a 10-year minimum sentence in fatal drunken driving cases after one motorist received only 90 days in jail.

Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, pointed to the case involving 24-year-old Christopher Schneider as reason for a tougher minimum sentence. Schneider struck and killed bicyclist Eugene Henry Dennis after drinking while watching a Packers game two years ago. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail, with work release, after pleading no contest last month to second-degree reckless homicide.

“Respect for life demands something more than 90 days,” Darling told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “The issue was somebody was killed, a very serious consequence. We have to balance the scales of justice in Wisconsin.”

Schneider’s attorney, Dennis Melowski, of Sheboygan, says Schneider had never been in trouble before and the sentence was appropriate in his situation.

Others, including the attorney representing Dennis’ estate and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin, disagreed.

“I think 90 days is too light. It just doesn’t seem right,” said Dave Schlabowske, spokesman for the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. “There’s a cultural mind-set that these are accidents, a tragedy but the price we pay for driving motor vehicles. Nothing we can do about it. Even when a person’s drunk.”

His group is lobbying for a law ….MORE