A UNC School of Government Blog
A six-year battle in Minnesota regarding the reliability of breath test results in impaired driving cases in light of alleged defects in the testing instrument’s source code ended last summer. The State mostly won, though the Minnesota Supreme Court determined that machine-generated reports of a deficient breath sample were unreliable absent corroborating evidence. The case … Read more
I’m eagerly awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling in Missouri v. McNeely. I want to know whether the exigency created by the dissipation of alcohol in the body, without more, permits the police to compel the withdrawal of blood from an impaired driving suspect without a warrant. But there’s one thing I already know: The legal … Read more
I’m not buying a lottery ticket this week. The court of appeals’ opinion in State v. McKenzie, published yesterday, casts serious doubt on my wagering skills. And if my wagers are this suspect when I make an educated guess, I don’t want take on the odds in a game of chance. McKenzie holds, over a … Read more
Horses are vehicles, according to our state court of appeals. In State v. Dellinger, 73 N.C. App. 685 (1985), the court upheld the defendant’s conviction for impaired driving based upon his riding of a horse on a street with an alcohol concentration of 0.18. The court reasoned: G.S. 20-171 renders traffic laws applicable to persons … Read more
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) thinks states ought to require ignition interlock as a condition of driving for anyone convicted of DWI, including first-time offenders. So does the U.S. Congress. The NTSB made its recommendation last week as part of its report on a special investigation into vehicle crashes occurring as a result of … Read more
Is the parking lot of a private social club a public vehicular area for purposes of North Carolina’s impaired driving laws? Yes, in most circumstances, it is. Public vehicular areas (or PVAs) include any area within the state “used by the public for vehicular traffic at any time.” G.S. 20-4.01(32) sets forth several illustrative examples … Read more
I’ve written several posts (the latest one here) about the availability of a limited driving privilege for a person whose driver’s license is revoked upon conviction of impaired driving in violation of G.S. 20-138.1. A limited driving privilege is a judgment issued in the discretion of the court authorizing a person with a revoked driver’s … Read more
WRAL news reported last week that a Selma police officer had been placed on administrative leave after he allegedly handcuffed an emergency room nurse who refused to withdraw blood from a defendant suspected of impaired driving. The nurse reportedly was released from handcuffs after Smithfield police arrived, and charges against the suspected impaired driver were … Read more
Several earlier posts (here, here and here) address the availability of a limited driving privilege for a person whose driver’s license is revoked upon conviction of impaired driving. Such a privilege allows a person to lawfully drive—for limited purposes at limited times—during the period of the revocation. I wrote here about DMV’s authority to revoke a … Read more
Y’all may be tired of reading about sentencing in impaired driving cases, particularly if you’ve read this entire bulletin. But I’m hoping the reader-market will bear a few more sentencing-related posts since I’ve not tired of writing about the subject. Recently, in a session I taught about sentencing under G.S. 20-179, a lively discussion broke … Read more