HOLIDAY MESSAGE TO OUR READERS!

Thank you for your support as we transitioned from the Criminal Law Brief to the Criminal Law Practitioner.  This semester students and guest practitioners have put out a series of great posts that we hope you enjoyed.  Thanks to all who contributed to make it a great first season with the CLP Blog!  Student posts will be temporarily suspended until January 2014.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:  Please note we will be changing the blog address from wclcriminallawbrief.blogspot.com to crimlawpractitionerblog.blogspot.com. You can also access the blog through the CLP website: crimlawpractitioner.com, or by googling us or following the blog via email and Twitter.

When we resume again in January 2014 we will be launching a new section -- The Supreme Court Watch -- where upcoming and recent Supreme Court cases and opinions relating to criminal law will be discussed and analyzed.  We will break down the cases with specific analysis for the affect on practitioners.

We are also excited to announce that the first CLP publication will be published and ready for distribution in January 2014!  This publication will consist of four student articles, four practitioner articles, and two editorial pieces. If you are interested in receiving a free copy of the CLP publication, please email us at crimlawpractitioner@gmail.com with your contact information and we will add you to our mailing list.   

If you are interested in submitting an article to the publication, please visit our website for submission details and you may contact us at crimlawpractitioner@gmail.com; or for a blog post, please email us at crimlawpractitionerblog@gmail.com.

Thank you again for reading the CLP Blog and sharing your comments with us.

Happy Holidays!

Sincerely, 

The Criminal Law Practitioner

The Breadth of Admissibility: A Survey of BAC Margin of Error Evidence in DUI Cases

DUI cases make up the bread and butter of most criminal dockets.  One of the primary evidentiary tools for these cases is some sort of BAC testing instrument.  Like any piece of scientific equipment though there is a margin of error inherent in the testing procedure and equipment.  This margin of error has been the source of significant litigation across the United States, where defense attorneys have attempted to introduce the testing margin of error as something for the jury to consider when analyzing the BAC test.  There is a majority and minority view held by the sister-states concerning the admissibility of blood alcohol test margin of error.  The majority view is that margin of error is admissible and can be considered for the weight of the evidence, the credibility of the evidence, or for attacking a statutory presumption of intoxication.  The minority view is that the margin of error is inadmissible because the statute already takes it into account or only goes to the validity of the test and not to its evidentiary value.  It should be noted though that the following is not a complete survey of all fifty states, because some states do not have as extensive case law on point or dip into administrative or civil license forfeiture decisions for basing their analysis on BAC testing margin of error.