HARTZLER v STATE – Hospital records are not testimonial under Crawford
Hartzler v State, A15A0321, Affirmed, June 30, 2015. The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed the felony vehicular homicide conviction of Colon Hartzler. Hartzler appealed alleging sufficiency of the evidence, a violation of the Confrontation Clause in the admission of his hospital blood tests, and charging the jury that negligence of the victim was irrelevant for […]
Read MoreIt is about time to end race discrimination in Jury Selection
On November 2, 2015, the New York Times reported on the oral arguments in the United States Supreme Court case of Foster vs. Chatman, Case No. 14-8349. This is a Georgia Death penalty case where an all-white jury convicted Foster of capital murder and the death penalty. After the normal appeals were exhausted, an open record request was […]
Read MoreThe Constitution is not a dirty legal trick
On October 29, 2015, WSB-TV Channel 2 ran a spooky Halloween investigative report claiming that DUI Offenders were using a legal “trick” to get out of DUI arrests by claiming they were too drunk to consent to blood and breath tests. This story simplifies the complex and confounds the simple. First, there are two ways to […]
Read MoreGeorgia DUI breath test Intoxilyzer 9000 gets an F
Alcohol Breath testing is the cornerstone of Georgia DUI law enforcement. A state administered breath test is really just a guess at the true blood alcohol level of a person. Accuracy is paramount in alcohol breath testing. The number one enemy of accuracy in alcohol breath testing is interference from mouth alcohol. The threat of […]
Read MoreHand Sanitizers used by operators can cause false positives on breathalyzers as high as .119
Physicians Weekly reported in its May 1, 2013 issue that hand sanitizers caused significant false positives in controlled studies when used by breathalyzer operators. The DUI Breath test subjects had consumed no alcohol and had registered 0.0 immediately before testing. After the operators applied hand sanitizer, these test subjects tested as high as 0.119. Breathalyzers […]
Read MoreVolkswagen Proves that Private Proprietary Computer Source Code and the Law Do Not Mix
The Breaking Volkswagen Diesel Emission Proprietary Source Code Cheating Scandal highlights why private and proprietary computer source code written for legal and regulatory purposes should be free for inspection and review. Hiding behind intellectual property rights and proprietary trade secret laws is just too tempting for human nature and private enterprises to cheat to reach […]
Read MoreA DUI Conviction can make you uninsurable for Life Insurance
Did you know that a DUI conviction can significantly increase the cost of life insurance or potentially prohibit you from obtaining Life Insurance at all? Inquisitr.com ran a story on September 20, 2015, explaining how that can happen. Nationwide Insurance will reduce life insurance rates after a few years following a DUI conviction. Prudential representatives […]
Read MoreThere is a Giant Hole in the accuracy of Standardized DUI Field Sobriety Evaluations
September 4, 2015. I was listening to an episode of Econ Talk on Econometrics and the thought occurred to me of whether anyone had done a regression analysis on Standardized Field Sobriety Evaluations field studies which is the first and most basic step in the Statistical analysis of any data to analyze patterns, causation, and other […]
Read MoreWellstar Hospitals in Metro Atlanta refuse to conduct DUI blood tests on non-consenting drivers
WSB-TV reported on September 1st, 2015 that Wellstar Hospital System in Metro-Atlanta is refusing to draw the blood of non-consenting drivers even when a warrant is issued. Hospital officials have stated that law enforcement is welcome to draw the blood but hospital employees will not be drawing the blood. Hospitals said simply that their personnel […]
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