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Civil License Revocations and Double Jeopardy

As most readers of this blog know, many people charged in North Carolina with driving while impaired and other implied consent offenses suffer the immediate consequence of having their driver’s licenses revoked pursuant to G.S. 20-16.5 by the magistrate at their initial appearance. North Carolina enacted its administrative license revocation procedure as part of the … Read more

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Requests for Blood in Death by Vehicle Cases

G.S. 20-141.4 sets forth six offenses based upon the unlawful killing or injuring of another during the commission of a motor vehicle offense.  All but one of these death or injury by vehicle offenses are felonies and are predicated upon causing death or injury while driving while impaired in violation of G.S. 20-138.1 or 20-138.2. … Read more

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Providing Notice of Implied Consent Rights to Persons Who Do Not Speak English (Part II)

Part I of this post left for another day consideration of whether a defendant who does not speak English may be deemed to have willfully refused a chemical analysis when notice of the implied consent rights is provided only in English and whether providing notice only in English may violate such a defendant’s constitutional rights. … Read more

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Providing Notice of Implied Consent Rights to Persons Who Do Not Speak English (Part I)

Several earlier posts a (here, here, and here) address the requirement that a person arrested for an implied consent offense be informed of statutory implied consent rights before being asked to submit to a chemical analysis. Posts (here and here) address the remedy for failure to adhere to these statutory requirements. None of those posts, … Read more

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Second Installment: Suppression of Chemical Analyses in Implied Consent Cases for Statutory Violations

Stan Speedy is charged with impaired driving. He has filed a motion to suppress evidence of blood test results based on a violation of his Fourth Amendment and his statutory rights under Chapter 20. At the suppression hearing, a sheriff’s deputy testifies to the following facts:   At 10 p.m. on the evening of May … Read more

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The Theory of Implied Consent

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the offense of operating while impaired.  One of the issues I raised in the post was whether telling a defendant that his or her refusal to submit to a breath test in such a case was admissible at trial amounted to coercion that rendered the consent involuntary.  A … Read more

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Boating While Impaired

Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer around these parts, and I thought I’d mark the occasion with a post related to boating (a favorite summer pastime) and crime (since this is, after all, the criminal law blog).  Specifically, this post discusses the crime of boating while impaired. G.S. 75A-10(b1) prohibits the operation of … Read more

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Proving That Blood Was Drawn by a Qualified Person

Earlier posts (here, here, and here) discuss the statutory and constitutional requirements for obtaining a sample of a defendant’s blood for analysis in an implied-consent case.  This post likewise addresses blood draws in such cases but addresses two narrower issues.  First, must the State establish that the blood was drawn by a qualified person before … Read more

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Officers Doing Blood Draws?

The Associated Press just published this story about a federal program in Idaho and Texas in which officers are trained to draw blood from people suspected of impaired driving. The notion is that blood draws counter the evidence lost as a result of breath test refusals, thereby resulting in fewer trials, more convictions and greater … Read more