Mississippi Criminal and Family Law Blog

In this line of business, we attorneys come across new and improved quackery that is supposed to help drinkers keep track of their blood alcohol content and whether they should be out on the road behind the wheel.
However, last week, I encountered the Breathometer. What a name! (See www.breathometer.com for information.) This new piece of tech supposedly can give a user their current BAC levels, how many hours it will be until they are sober, and it is super portable.
Partiers should probably not treat this product as a new security blanket, because it is, by its very nature, not as accurate as the machine down at the police station (and defense attorneys already know how inaccurate these can be). Moreover, drunk-o-meters have been in bars for years as a bar gag game and have not stopped impaired drivers from getting behind the wheel.
As long as people are drinking, there will be a new piece of tech to get people drunker faster, sober up quicker, and/or monitor their BAC all along the way. The police are counting on these three facts as it only leads to increased drinking and increased DUI citation writing.
The only way to combat drunk driving is to know one’s own limits. While a drinking driver may not have the same equipment that the police use to sniff out BAC, these drivers can ascertain their own level of intoxication relative to levels they have felt prior. The problem with this line of thinking is that drinkers typically cannot identify the difference between feeling .08 and feeling .12 by way of an example. Is this where the Breathometer makes out its own niche? Or is it more likely that the Breathometer will lead to more drivers who are mistakenly over the limit to get behind the wheel?

Eighteen-time Olympic gold-medalist Michael Phelps was arrested for DWI in Maryland last week. As a man with multi-million dollar endorsement gigs, he’s probably not too worried about the fines. But as our office has learned over the years, a DUI arrest and/or conviction can have many other repercussions. For Phelps, USA Swimming has suspended him and prohibited him from competing in the world championship next year. To read more about it, please read our post here. And if you’ve been charged with DUI or a related crime, please give us a call to discuss your case.

In an effort to crack down on impaired driving, law enforcement agencies across the state are adopting the practice of “no-refusal” traffic stops and checkpoints. In other words, when a person suspected of DUI refuses to submit to a breath test, police are, in a sense, forcing them to submit to a blood test. Essentially, if a person refuses to submit to a breath test, the officer contacts an “on call” judge who will issue a warrant to obtain a sample of the person’s blood. To read more about this practice, please read our blog post here. And if you have been subject to this practice or otherwise charged with DUI or any other crime, please contact our office.

It is no secret that the effects of a DUI arrest and conviction are far-reaching. Jail time and fine amounts are only the first part of the story. Then there are alcohol safety education programs, victim impact panels, and high-risk insurance costs. Perhaps the most serious consideration, however, is the effects of a DUI on your career. According to Donna Ballman of AOL Jobs, there are at least “9 Ways a DUI Will Destroy Your Career.” You can follow this link to read the full article.

As technology advances, law enforcement agencies, like everyone else, try to keep up.  The field of DUI detection is no exception. Most modern methods of detecting alcohol can be extremely accurate and reliable in the hands of capable scientists.  However, most police officers aren’t scientists. As such, there is a significant margin for human error not only when it comes to blood, breath, or urine tests, but also with regard to standardized field sobriety tests.  Therefore, it is important for a DUI defense attorney to possess at least a fundamental understanding of the science involved in DUI detection.

For more information, please visit this link.

In the recent Mississippi Supreme Court decision of Freeman v. State, NO. 2012-KM-00192-SCT, the court reversed a DUI conviction where the state trooper’s in-car video was lost prior to a new trial on appeal.  In short, the defendant was never provided with a copy of the video used to convict him in the trial court.  On appeal, the county court ordered the State to preserve the video for the new trial.  However, the computer-based video file was corrupted and lost before being provided to the defendant.  The court reversed the conviction, holding that, without the video, the defendant’s right to a fair trial was violated.  For more information, please visit this link.

On April 11, 2013, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant signed into law House Bill 481, which introduces several changes to Mississippi’s DUI laws.  While I have previously addressed the ways in which this bill “cracks down” on impaired drivers, it also provides a benefit to potentially thousands of people who have been convicted of DUI.  Effective next year, anyone who has been convicted of a first offense DUI prior to the law’s effective date may be eligible to have their DUI record expunged; of course, there are certain requirements.

For more information, please visit this link.