Texas DWI Laws and Defense of DWI Charges
Well, Eric Dexheimer, on the Statesman’s Focal Point blog, actually asks the question “Do prosecutors walk the walk with DWI breath tests?”. The answer, of course, is usually a resounding “Hell No!” but a more interesting question is – if you believe me that the answer is “No”- then “Why Not?”
Could it …
In order of most to least common, the 3 basic defenses to DWI in Texas would be:
I might be wrong about “Not Driving” being a more frequently viable defense than “Not While” but the third is still probably the least known to laypersons. The short version …
Austin is the only Austin in Texas. Or, as the saying goes, “When you leave Austin, you enter Texas”.
And Austin has reacted – albeit in a non-statistically significant way – to the news that our Police Chief announced that he intends to stick it to every DWI arrestee that refuses a breath sample. As in …
I’m at the Rusty Duncan seminar in San Antonio, and news comes by way of the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Association listserv that Austin DWI lawyer Bill Mange just got a Not Guilty verdict on a .12 breath test trial back in Travis County. I heard the jury came back in just under an hour.
Congrats …
One of the things I love about the criminal defense/DWI blogosophere is that it is a great resource for practicing lawyers. Reading other attorneys’ thoughts often helps me in my day to day practice.
Two quick examples:
From Robert Guest on DWI and Jury Selection:
As part of the jury selection process I often ask
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No, they don’t object to testing you for breath alcohol when they pull you over for going 5 miles over the speed limit on I-35. (Example taken from a recent Austin DWI arrest.)
They object to being breath tested themselves.
The New York City Police Department is moving to require
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Or perhaps… in my corner of the blogosphere, “Why Lawyers Should Read Lawyer Blogs”. (Because they can always improve their skills.)
One of the great things about law blogging is that done correctly, it requires that you read other law blogs. I’ll get to how that potentially helps me as a practicing DWI lawyer in Austin, Texas …
From today’s Austin American Statesman article about an unsuccessful attempt to reverse the presumption of innocence for DWI cases in Texas:
A third proposal would have simplified the method used for determining a person’s blood-alcohol content at the time he or she was driving.
The proposal, House Bill 915, by Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock,
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I was arrested for the first time ever last weekend for DWI. The police officer stated I didn’t come to a complete stop at a stop sign and that’s why he pulled me over. I thought I did OK on the field sobriety tests but was arrested. Scared and nervous, but I did about as well
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Dennis Paxinos, the chief prosecutor for Yellowstone County, Montana, wrote a Guest Opinion column in the Billings Gazette this week entitled “Scientific Test would disprove DUI myth of ‘few drinks’.”
Outraged by the suggestion of legislators in his area that a “few drinks” might accidently put them over the legal limit of …