A Warrant for a DWI?
It's rare when the US Supreme Court makes a bright line
legal test for anything and they continued this with the holding in Missouri v.Mcneely. However, they certainly did not give police a green light to force
blood from those arrested for DWI without obtaining a warrant. Instead they
used the old standby "totality of the circumstances" test and held
that police officers should obtain a warrant if it could be reasonably obtained
by a judicial official.
Any criminal defense lawyer in Mecklenburg County is very familiar with totality
of the circumstances test. It is a staple item in Fourth Amendment procedure.
Defense attorneys and District Attorney's will now essentially be forced to
'Monday morning quarterback' the police officers decisions not to get a warrant
based on the totality of the circumstances of each case.
Ten years ago, I believe prosecutors would be on the winning
side of this argument that obtaining a warrant was not feasible. When I was
Deputy District Attorney, I remember Narcotic Detectives telling me how they
would call the resident judge at home in the middle of the night to get
warrants signed. In a DWI case, the exigency of the alcohol level
dissipating in a person arrested would not justify making a trip across
town to get a warrant approved. That would simply take too much time.
Technology has improved police procedure tremendously. Or,
at least it should.
Now in world of preprinted forms, magistrates stationed at
jail facility 24 hours a day and general accessibility of everyone, the prosecutor's argument that "it would of taken too much time to get a warrant" argument will be an uphill
battle in a courtroom.
Mecklenburg County Criminal Attorney Updates Provided By The Law Office of Carilyn Ibsen PLLC
Mecklenburg County Criminal Attorney Updates Provided By The Law Office of Carilyn Ibsen PLLC
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