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 […]
(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 […]
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 […]
By Wayne Morris, MS Morris-Kopec Forensics, Inc. A breath alcohol concentration is the determined by a breath alcohol testing procedure using a breath alcohol testing device. What has just been stated means that an analytical test is being used. Analytical testing is governed by the area of Analytical Chemistry and, as such, several conditions must […]
By William C. Head, Esq., Atlanta, GA A recent statistical study conducted by Rod Gullberg, supervisor of the of the State of Washington’s breath test program, reveals a great deal of valuable data about the modern drinking patterns of persons arrested for DUI. Gullberg, an adjunct instructor at the Borkenstein Institute in Bloomington, Indiana, […]