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Law Trumps Scientific Truth in DUI Cases

By Lawrence Taylor

It is an unfortunate fact that law and politics repeatedly trump science when it comes to prosecuting citizens accused of drunk driving?..   In People v. Bransford, to cite one notable example, the California Supreme Court was confronted with a defendant who was challenging his DUI conviction on the grounds that he was not permitted to offer scientific evidence to the jury. Specifically, he was not permitted to offer the testimony of recognized experts that the breath machine’s computer was programmed to assume that there were 2100 parts of alcohol in his blood for every 1 part it measured in his breath. He was also prevented by the trial judge from offering further evidence that this 2100:1 ratio was only an average ? and that the actual ratio varied widely from person to person, and within one person from moment to moment...continue to full post

Full post as published by DUI Blog on April 05, 2008 (boomark / email).