(Editor’s Note: This is an edited version of the opinion of the North Carolina Supreme Court in State v. Yencer, No. 365PA10, filed Nov. 10, 2011.) The North Carolina General Assembly enacted the Campus Police Act to provide police protection at “institutions of higher education” and to ensure “this protection is not denied to students, […]
Technicians at the Nassau County, N.Y., crime lab were found to have not followed basic crime lab procedures, meaning that either samples or equipment may have been contaminated in drug cases. For those who were convicted of driving while intoxicated, there are issues regarding the calibration of the lab’s portable breath test. This could impact […]
By Philip G. Espinosa, Judge Court of Appeals of Arizona, Division Two, Department B On an evening in June 2007, Walton was racing another vehicle at a high rate of speed when he lost control of his car, spun around, and crashed into a guardrail. Pima County Sheriff’s Deputy Heather Lappin responded to the scene […]
DWI defense attorneys routinely challenge police actions on the basis on faulty breath-test machines or similar scientific matters. But a series of cases involving the police departments in Washington State suggests public record requests may open new avenues of attack. In one case, reported in the Seattle Times, a number of DWI prosecutions were thrown […]
By Stanley J. Broskey, PhD Forensic Scientist, Bucks County, Pa. DWI prosecutions depend upon the assumption that everyone’s blood-breath ratio is the same. This assumption is enacted into law, along with a specific blood-breath ratio. In some countries, such as the United States, that ratio is 2100:1; in some European countries, such as the […]