Thursday, August 22, 2013

Intoxilyzer 8000 a Worthless Piece of Junk

First, a caveat.

A really, really depressing caveat.  Bad news first.

1987, Supreme Court of Nebraska declares results of Intoxilyzer 4011AS inadmissible because they rely on blood/breath ratio of 2100:1.
1990, Colorado Department of Health and the New Hampshire Division of Human Services send separate letters, unrelated to each other, to CMI telling them that the Intoxilyzer 5000 has lost credibility with the law enforcement community and has a ton of problems.  No one seems to care.
2000, Nebraska backtracks.
2004, Indiana Court of Appeals throws out a result because of a tongue ring.
2005, Indiana Supremes say, forget that!

There are other such cases (particularly an amazing battle between trial judges in New Jersey and their seriously fucked up Supreme Court). 

The landscape of DUI law is postapocalyptic, with massive, steel towers draped in a twisted version of the American flag.  Nothing good lives here.  Even in Ohio, where State v. Homan
89 Ohio St.3d 421, 732 N.E.2d 952 (2000) remained good law right up until it was overruled by the legislature.

But Good News arrives once again from the armpit state:

Retired Municipal Judge Teresa Liston (may she live forever) found in the Marrietta Municipal Courthouse (Ohio) that the Intoxilyzer 8000 is based on science too unreliable to be used in a court of law.

OH YEAH BABY

Articles are here and here

First person to get a copy of that order wins.

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