Blood alcohol law under debate
By Samson Habte
Examiner Staff Writer Under Virginia law, drivers are
automatically judged intoxicated if their blood alcohol content is 0.08
percent or higher.
But in July, Fairfax defense attorney Corrine Magee successfully argued
that the Virginia law is unconstitutional because it denies a
defendant's right to be presumed innocent.
Before and after
An individual may register a 0.08 in tests administered hours after
their arrest, Magee argued, but the time lapse between alleged
infraction and testing may lead to a higher BAC readings than the
individual had when arrested. In other words, a person could be below
the limit at the time of arrest and above it when tested hours later.
The crafty argument convinced Fairfax County District Court Judge Ian M.
O'Flaherty to dismiss charges against three alleged drunken drivers in
July. In the weeks since, lawmakers and lawyers have suggested
Virginia's law be rewritten to avoid arguments it is unconstitutional.
"If Virginia's law is unconstitutional, we need to fix it," said state
Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, a Fairfax Republican.
Jack King, a spokesman for the National Association of Criminal Defense
Lawyers, said the arguments against the constitutionality of the law are
valid.
A defendant "could have been at 0.05 at the time of arrest," King said.
But accused drunken drivers should not be required to prove that the
0.08 reading was not an accurate reading of intoxication level at arrest
because that would "shift the burden of proof to the defendant," he
said.
But while some argue that the 0.08 standard - which is in force in all
50 states - should be scrapped, anti-drunken driving activists disagree.
Kurt Erickson, president of the Washington Regional Alcohol Program,
said the 0.08 threshold "is a line that has gained public acceptance."
"You have to have some barometer to measure impairment," Erickson said.
Behind the wheel
Arrests for drunken driving or driving under the influence of drugs in
2004:
- Arlington County: 547
- Fairfax County: 2,855
- Prince William County: 1,621
Statistics compiled by the Washington Region Alcohol Program
shabte@dcexaminer.com
|
