By Howard Ankin Ankin Law Office, Chicago, Ill. Although a DUI crash can occur at anytime, some days of the year are riskier than others. Major spikes in the number of DUI crashes are seen during times of celebration; mainly surrounding holidays and during the summer months when an increased number of drivers take the […]
Limitations in Transdermal Alcohol Monitoring Part 1 Confronting the Chemical Test: Using the Confrontation Clause to Keep Test Results Out of Evidence Case Law & Litigation Tips Click Here to Read This Issue
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that while the Fourth Amendment permits warrentless breath tests, it does not permit warrentless blood tests. In its opinion, the court said breath tests do not “implicate significant privacy concerns; The physical intrusion is almost neglegible, while blood tests “require piercing the body and thus are significantly more intrusive […]
When “Laura’s Law” was signed by Governor Bev Perdue in June, North Carolina became the 8th state in the last year to pass progressive DUI legislation that is substantially shifting the focus of DUI laws from penalizing cars to required—and enforced—sobriety for the most dangerous drivers on the road. Laura’s Law was named for Laura […]
For more than 25 years, DWI Journal: Law & Science provided winning legal strategies and scientific information to the DWI defense bar — along with some prosecutors and state supreme courts. Publication was suspended because we were unable to find an appropriate editor. In response to numerous requests, we will be posting all our content […]
(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 […]