Driving While Intoxicated Incidents

In deciding which defenses could be used in your driving while intoxicated (DWI) case, your lawyer or attorney will look at the evidence given by the police and meet with and talk to witnesses. Some common defenses observed in DWI cases include:

Driving Observation Defenses

The prosecutor always relies (sometimes exclusively) on the arresting police officer’s account about how exactly a DWI suspect was driving a vehicle, like:

• Very slow speeds
• Uneven speeds (very fast, then very slow, for example)
• Moving from one side of a lane to the other
• Crossing the middle line of the highway
• Running a red light
• Hesitation in going through a green light

A first rate defense attorney will argue that there are many answers for these driving behaviors that won’t have anything to do with being alcohol-impaired.

Behavior Observation Defenses

An officer can also testify as to a DWI suspect’s appearance and behavior when questioned, including:

• Unclear speech
• Bloodshot eyes
• Inappropriate joking or incoherent speech
• Stumbling or not being able to walk very far
• Pupil Dilation

Defenses to these observations that do not have anything to do with being intoxicated may include:

• Lack of sleep
• Allergies
• Contact lenses
• Stress due to personal circumstances
• Medications
• Foods recently ingested
• Nervousness over being stopped by police
• Physical impairments

Field Sobriety Test Defenses

When an official suspects you may be too inebriated to drive, the police officer will likely demand you to carry out what are called “field sobriety tests.” These tests are made to analyse your physical and mental alertness, and include:

• Walking a straight line
• Walking backwards
• Reciting the alphabet, frontwards or backwards
• Standing on one leg

Officers additionally sometimes rely on what’s defined as a “nystagmus” test, in which the suspect is asked to shift eye gaze from one side to the other while the officer shines a light in his or her eyes. The hypothesis is that the gaze of the person who is impaired with alcohol or drugs can be jerky rather than even.

The defenses to field sobriety tests are often the same as with officer observations. Medications and lack of sleep might make it considerably more hard to perform these assessments. Many individuals also have physical impairments caused by injuries – or simply aging -that make it impossible to execute these tasks under ideal conditions.

Your lawyer may cross-examine the arresting officer in more detail as to whether the officer questioned you if you had physical impairments or there were particular circumstances that couldmake it tough to perform the tests. Your lawyer might also mention to the jury that many jury members could have similar difficulties performing the tests, for instance by asking the jury if they could recite the alphabet backwards under the best of circumstances.

For help with an Augusta GA DUI, contact an Augusta DUI lawyer.