Although defense attorneys have finally obtained full access to the brains behind the state’s drunken-driving breath-test machine, they are now asking for more time to analyze the computer code.
Thousands of drunken-driving cases across the state have been put on hold as defense attorneys seek to challenge the reliability of the Intoxilyzer 5000
Computer analysis was supposed to be completed by July 1 in preparation for a trial on the machine.
One of the problems with the Intoxilyzer alleged by defense attorneys is a technical glitch that causes the machine to report that someone refused to submit to the test if the suspect blows to hard.
Initially, the machine’s manufacturer, CMI, refused to release the computer code, called the source code, that controls the machine.
Well over 100 drunken-driving cases have been dismissed across Minnesota when the state was unable to provide the source code, said Marsh Halberg of Chaska, one of three lead attorneys for a coalition of DWI attorneys challenging the machine.
Although a federal lawsuit finally forced to the manufacturer to make the code available, it took months of legal wrangling before the company would provide the code in a format that defense attorneys found useful for analysis.
District Court Judge Jerome Abrams has been assigned all the source-code challenges in the state from drunken-driving defendants. This case implications for DWI attorneys throughout the nation. Please visit your local Minnesota DWI Attorney for further information. For information regarding a DWI in Chaska Minnesota, please visit your local Chaska DWI Attorney.
For full article please visit http://www.shakopeenews.com/news/general_news/judge_asked_delay_trial_dwi_machine-106
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