If you’re caught driving while drunk in Montgomery County, Texas, your name is going to be publicly listed on twitter. County Vehicular Crimes Prosecutor Warren Diepraam decided that this is the best way to keep people from driving drunk during the holiday season.

The Houston-area county will start publishing names on Twitter during holiday weekends such as the Christmas holidays, Fourth of July and Memorial Day, which are thought of as times when a lot of people drive while intoxicated.

Many worry about the privacy implications of a prosecutor so willing to name and shame people who have been charged, but not convicted yet.

A “person who’s been arrested is still innocent unless proven guilty,” said Houston defense attorney Paul Kennedy in a blog posting. “My question is should the DA dismiss a case against a motorist or should a motorist be acquitted by a jury of his peers, will Mr. Diepraam offer a public apology on Twitter as well?”

Just “because facts are publicly known and made available by the media, doesn’t mean the prosecutor has to actively publicize these facts,” wrote Venkat Balasubramani, a lawyer and Internet law blogger.

Mr. Diepraam, however, believes in anonymity through obscurity and isn’t being deterred.

“We’re not putting information in the public that’s unavailable,” he said. “In our area, we’ve got a population of around 6 million people and I sincerely doubt that the fact that I’ve put someone’s name on a Twitter page is going to affect their right to a fair trial.”

Names of those arrested for DWI will be posted on District Attorney Brett Ligon’s Twitter page.

The court of public opinion is far worse than an actual court with an actual decision of guilt or innocence. Once a person is found not guilty, is the DA going to publicly issue an apology and provide some sort of compensation concerning the perceived losses of being wrongfully accused?

Regardless of what a person thinks of a drunk driver, placing a person charged with a crime in the same group as those guilty of the crime is also reprehensible. This plan has not been thought out and the prosecutors will think twice once the lawsuits start rolling in.