A man that was given a life sentence as a DUI penalty is asking a judge to revisit his DUI jail sentence seven years later. According to a story on WTSP.com Joseph Safrany has been granted a request for a re-sentencing because he claimed his friends were never allowed to testify before he was sentenced. He argued that if those friends were heard before sentencing they would have painted the picture of a remorseful man not the one that was throwing parties before he ran off for 15 months and assumed a dead man’s identity.
Safrany was sentenced in 2003 to life in prison after being involved in an accident that killed three people and injured a fourth. Police say Safrany was speeding and had a blood alcohol limit twice the legal level. The prosecution showed the jury a man that wouldn’t take blame for the drunk driving crash. He claimed the other driver was drunk as well and bore some of the responsibility for turning into his right of way and that he was not speeding at the time of the accident as police reported. The prosecutors in the case said that Safrany threw a party and then ran off assuming a dead man’s identity.
Safrany’s friends and family tell a different story. They would like to be able to tell the judge about the changes in his personality following the fatal Tampa DUI accident and that he was suffering and not celebrating like prosecutors said. The family hopes that hearing the stories of who the man was really reacting to the deaths would maybe cause the judge to rethink the DUI penalty handed down in the case. His mother testified on his behalf during the motion for a new sentencing. She testified that the son she knew had died that day as well and never came back. She called him a completely different man following the crash.
