Thursday, June 28, 2012

Minnesota Supreme Court Rules Against DWI Suspects' Ability to Challenge Intoxilyzer's Accuracy

In a landmark decision announced yesterday, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that DWI
 defendants in Minnesota did not have a right to discovery of the manufacturer's source code in order to challenge the accuracy of the Intoxilyzer 5000 machine.  Since this machine, the predominant method for testing breath alcohol samples in Minnesota, is self-diagnosing in terms of its accuracy, the court's ruling in essence greatly curtails the types and possibilities of success to challenges over the accuracy of the machine's results.

I give credit to Justice Page for his dissenting opinion, who seemed to be the only Justice concerned with the rights of criminal defendants in this instance.

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