Arizona DUI Defense Blog : Arizona DUI Lawyer & Attorney : Koplow & Patane Law Firm : Arizona DUI Defense

Arizona DUI cases almost always involve a chemical test. There is a movement in Arizona towards the exclusive use of blood testing. It is well settled that blood testing is more accurate than breath testing. But how accurate is blood testing? Can it truly determine a person's blood alcohol concentration? I believe that these are reasonable questions to be asked by a person accused of DUI and facing 30 to 45 days in jail.

Under our system of justice we should demand better answers from the government than "because we said so" or "because our lab has the highest standards." Simple conclusions are not good enough in science and they should not be good enough in justice.

So who checks the government's test results in Arizona? The simple answer is the government. They merely claim to check themselves. I have yet to see one Arizona crime lab that conducts blind testing by an independent party.

Here is how the actual process works. In Arizona DUI cases, The government expert will tell juries that they do double check their work. That is, they have a quality assurance program to make sure the blood alcohol test results are accurate. But the government's oversight of their work is not what you my think. Instead retesting every sample, or randomly retesting a portion of the samples, the lab merely does a technical review.

A "technical review" is not retesting. The Government toxicologist usually puts between 30 to 40 blood samples into a blood tester. Then they turn the blood tester on and leave. The blood tester commonly runs overnight and the printed results are reviewed by the government lab person.

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I ran across an excellent post discussing the source code issue.  That is, the fight between criminal defense attorneys and the maker of the breath tester (CMI) to disclose the code used in their breath testers.  CMI will not allow an inspection of the code.  Consequently, it cannot be checked for accuracy.  CMI essentially tells everyone charged with DUI to "just trust us."

Ed Brayton, a journalist and the co-founder of Michigan Citizens for Science, discusses the source code litigation in Florida.

Here's a very interesting case from Florida, where an appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that threw out evidence from a breathalyzer test in a drunk driving case because the manufacturer of the device refused to release the source code and allow defense experts to analyze the accuracy of the machines.

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Here is a very well researched and produced video regarding an Ohio DUI case.  While I do not agree with everything he argues, her certainly makes some vaild points.  Enjoy:

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There is significantly more drinking and driving during the holidays.  It happens every year, in every place.  I have plenty of business.  However, I don't want you to become a customer. Trust me, you have better things to do than hang out with me in a courtroom for the next three or four months.  Thus, I am going to republish a post that I have previously written.  The post is titled: "3 Things I Wish People Knew Before Drinking & Driving."

Before you read the post, please watch this video.  The story is more persuasive than anything I could ever write.

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In case you ever wondered what happens on the side of the road when a person is stopped for DUI, here is a video showing exactly what goes on.  Enjoy:

DUI Stop from konu on Vimeo.

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It turns out my previous post showing Wonder Bread causing a false blood alcohol concentration reading was not an isolated incident.  The same forensic toxicologist and drug recognition expert did another Wonder Bread experiment.  Here it is:

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As demonstrated below, it appears that Wonder Bread is like Kryptonite to the Intoxilyzer 8000. While I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the test that occurred in this video, I have very little reason to doubt its veracity.  Especially since the manufacture of the Intoxilyzer 8000 (CMI) will not allow anyone (including the government) to inspect the source code used in this contraption.  Enjoy:

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You can keep track of all the news about the Arizona DUI laws by watching our Twitter Feed. 

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The legislature has once again raised the DUI penalties.  However, the changes only affect those convicted of extreme DUI.  That is, the penalties are only increased for those convicted of a DUI having a blood alcohol concentration between .150 and below .200.  The new penalties are illustrated below:

 If you need legal advice for a specific problem, you must consult with an Arizona DUI attorney. For more information about Arizona DUI law or a specific legal problem, please contact Koplow & Patane on-line or by phone at (602) 494-3444.

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