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Trial by Machine

By Lawrence Taylor

I’ve posted extensively over past years about the continuing disintigration of the United States Constitution when it comes the the politically-sensitive field of drunk driving.  See, for example, The DUI Exception to the Constitution and Who Cares About DUI?.  One example of this is the growing use of presumptions of guilt – in direct violation of our constitutional right to a presumption of innocence.  See Whatever Happened to the Presumption of Innocence?  and If You Can’t Prove it, Make the Defendant Disprove It. The primary focus of this trend toward presuming guilt in DUI cases centers on the notoriously unreliable breath machines.  Most states, for example, now have laws presuming that the blood-alcohol level at the time of testing is the same as at the time of driving up to three hours earlier — and that the defendant is presumed to be guilty if the machine (or blood test) reads ...continue to full post

Full post as published by DUI Blog on January 08, 2009 (boomark / email).