Xequecal wrote:
Right now, when you're arrested for DUI you have to incriminate yourself. They can't force you to take the road breathalyzer, but if you don't they will arrest you and then force you to either give blood to test or give a breath specimen at the station.
No, they won't. They'll
ask you to take one. If you don't, your license will be suspended but no one will force you to take a test. The threat of license suspension is not punative or coercive either; it's a part of what you agree to in order to have a license to drive on the public streets.
Quote:
The latter is far worse because if the machine convicts you, there's no evidence that you can have tested yourself to challenge.
Post bail, or get someone to do it for you, and go to the hospital and get your own blood taken. Moreover, the machine does not convict you; it just tests BAC. Don't give me sob stories about how hard it is to post bail; 99% of the drunks I've seen arrested are out in less than 2 hours from the traffic stop. The government does not want to pay to keep them in jail.
As for concerns about the machine, there are strict standards for what constitutes a valid test, operators must be certified, and machines must be tested regularly (in ohio, every week) and the results turned in to the state to show the machine is accurate. No, tis is not formality; at one point a few years ago we tested for another department for several months because they were having a hard time getting theirs fixed and able to pass the test.
Quote:
But the point is, you're forced to incriminate yourself.
You're not.
Quote:
The question is, how do you get around that and still prosecute DUI? If you wait for a court order to collect this evidence, the evidence is gone. And you can't convict people for something as serious as DUI is today on just the officer's testimony, that's just your word against his. There has to be additional evidence.
Even if you didn't have the BAC test at all you could convict people of DUI. That's just evidence. You can still bring in car video, photos, empty containers of alcohol, etc. and tesitmony of witnesses, including the arresting officer.
In fact, in Ohio, OVI (the new name for DUI) is actually a separate charge from excess BAC (being over .08) although you cannot be convicted of more than one of those 2 charges for the same incident.