Minnesota Supreme Court Rejects DUI Challenges Based On Buggy Software 391
bzzfzz writes "In a case with parallels to the Diebold Voting Machine fiasco, Minnesota's Supreme Court upheld the reliability of the Intoxilyzer 5000EN breath testing machine on a narrow 4-3 vote. Source code analysis during the six-year legal battle revealed a number of bugs that could potentially affect test results. Several thousand DUI cases that were waiting on the results of this appeal will now proceed. The ruling is one in a series of DUI-related court victories for police and prosecutors. Other recent cases upheld a conviction of a person with no evidence that the vehicle had been driven and convictions based solely on urine samples that may only show impairment hours before driving. The Intoxilyzer 5000EN is now considered obsolete, and replacement devices are being rolled out, with the last jurisdictions in the state scheduled to retire their 5000ENs by the end of the year."
Minnesota, eh. (Score:5, Interesting)
We're the only state that can lock you up for life without a trial; all it takes is a judge to agree that there's a risk you could offend again. In other words, you serve your sentence, and then an unappealable, arbitrary decision, by one guy, can have you spend the rest of your life in jail. Our laws in this state are so bad that the European Union refuses to extradite people here in several cases. I am not surprised that they just basically crapped in the pool of civil rights and then shrugged and went on with their business.
We've convicted people of DUI for walking down the street. Seriously. It was upheld on the basis that he could have gotten in a motor vehicle, because he had his car keys on him. Bonus: The car didn't even run.
Too Bad (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I for one... (Score:2, Interesting)
Lame frosty.
Also, fuck this sociopathy of a "justice system". There is no consistency. They did not throw out these convictions only to save on paperwork. They should have been thrown out.
Also, if everyone exercised their right to a fair trial, then this bullshit criminal legal system would collapse. You'd see a lot fewer trumped up charges and minor offenses would be handled far more sanely. This "justice system" is like an abusive parent with a loud and obnoxious toddler.
Got me out of jury duty (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:if you drink, don't drive (Score:5, Interesting)
Many years ago I was at a bar in NJ listening to a band. I had 1 beer over the whole 4 hours I was there. I was younger and dancing my ass off so no time to drink. I was pulled over on the way back to my apartment. When they noticed my MN drivers license they asked me to take a breathalyzer, I did. When I passed it, they had another squad car there and asked me to take another one. This happened one more time before I refused. I had been breathalyzed 3 times and was still afraid that if I refused they would rough me up for not following orders. But, I finally said no because it was obvious that they were just hoping for a misreading. Then they all stood in a circle and talked and let me go. I was about 22 at the time and it has definitely helped to make me distrust police.