What is the Best Defense for DUI?
The best defense in a DUI is more important than ever. Fallout from pandemic lockdowns in 2020 triggered an upward trend in the number of alcohol-related fatal crashes in Virginia. Authorities are determined to reverse that trend. The over-aggressiveness often backfires. When officers make borderline arrests and prosecutors bring these matters to court, they’re difficult to prove.
If a defense for DUI creates a reasonable doubt in the mind of one juror, the defendant is not guilty as a matter of law. Additionally, a Leesburg criminal defense lawyer often uses a DUI defense as a bargaining chip during pretrial settlement negotiations. If a defense may apply, the risk for the state to try the case goes up. Many prosecutors would rather settle the case than roll the dice at trial in these situations. The best DUI defense in a given situation usually depends on the type of case.
Chemical Test Case
About 80 percent of DUI defendants provide breath or blood samples, either voluntarily because they consent or involuntarily because officers have a search warrant. Because of the search warrant requirement in blood test cases, nearly all chemical test cases involve breathalyzer tests.
When they take the stand, police breathalyzer techs dazzle jurors with tales of electrochemical reactions and the advanced nature of these gadgets. But no matter how many bells and whistles it has, a breathalyzer is still a breathalyzer, and these devices have some serious flaws.
- Calibration: Breathalyzers, especially breathalyzers loaded with advanced features, are very sensitive devices that require constant professional maintenance. So, it’s little wonder that improper device calibration is one of the most common breathalyzer flaws. Recently, a Massachusetts judge threw out tens of thousands of breathalyzer test results because the devices weren’t properly calibrated.
- Alcohol Digestion: After alcohol goes over the lips and past the gums, it settles in the liver before it seeps into the bloodstream. So, if the defendant consumed alcohol an hour or less before taking the test, that recently consumed alcohol is not yet in the bloodstream. Therefore, the BAC estimate is artificially high.
- False Positives: Ketone particles and mouth alcohol could cause false positives. Diabetics and smokers have high ketone levels, and breathalyzers usually read these particles as ethanol. Furthermore, if the defendant burped or belched before the test, alcohol particles from the stomach gush into the mouth, inflating the BAC estimate. This flaw is so common and so serious that Virginia law requires a fifteen-minute pre-test monitoring period. But courts don’t strictly enforce this requirement.
Evidence about these technical flaws may not resonate well with some jurors. So, a Leesburg criminal defense lawyer often partners with a degreed chemist or other professional who better connects with jurors.
Non-Test Case
If the defendant doesn’t provide a chemical sample, a Leesburg criminal defense lawyer must challenge the results of the field sobriety tests (FSTs), such as the one-leg stand.
These tests raise two important defenses. Did the defendant fail the test, and did the defendant fail the test because of alcohol intoxication.
On the stand, police officers basically testify that if a defendant scored 99 out of 100 on a field test, the defendant “failed” the test. Most jurors believe that 70 or even 60 out of 100 is a passing grade. Furthermore, especially toward the end of the FST process, many defendants do poorly because they’re mentally and/or physically fatigued.
Complete Refusal
These cases are few and far between, mostly because they’re almost impossible to prove in court. Without chemical test or FST evidence, prosecutors must rely on purely physical symptom evidence, such as an odor of alcohol and bloodshot eyes. At best, this evidence proves alcohol consumption or impairment, not alcohol intoxication.
Count on a Savvy Loudoun County Lawyer
There’s a big difference between an arrest and a conviction in criminal law. For a confidential consultation with an experienced criminal defense attorney in Leesburg, contact Simms Showers, LLP, Attorneys at Law. We have six offices throughout Northern Virginia and Maryland.
Source:
nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drunk-driving
