{"id":244,"date":"2013-09-10T07:47:38","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T07:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.massachusettscriminaldefenselawyerblog.com\/2013\/09\/challenge-to-accuracy-of-breat.html"},"modified":"2013-09-10T07:47:38","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T07:47:38","slug":"challenge-to-accuracy-of-breat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/challenge-to-accuracy-of-breat\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenge to Accuracy of Breath Test Results in Pennsylvania heading to the State Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Unlike under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\">Massachusetts OUI Law<\/a>, in some jurisdictions, the statutory penalties of driving under the influence vary depending on blood-alcohol measurements as determined by a breathalyzer exam or blood test. While trial courts across the nation are becoming increasingly skeptical of breathalyzers, the Pennsylvania Superior Court recently reversed a trial judge&#8217;s decision to dismiss a heightened DUI charge on a finding that breathalyzers are inaccurate. In Massachusetts, the statutory penalties are essentially the same regardless of the breath test results other than for drivers under 21 and other than the additional requirement of an alcohol assessment; of course, a judge is likely to impose a harsher punishment with a higher breath test result.  <\/p>\n<p>Last December a trial judge in Pennsylvania rejected a prosecutor&#8217;s attempts to prove the defendant, in the case of State v. Schildt, guilty of a heightened DUI statutory charge by presenting results from a breath test as evidence of the defendant having a BAC reading of 0.16 percent. A reading of 0.16 percent or greater qualifies a defendant in Pennsylvania for the maximum penalty under the DUI statute, with increased prison time and fines. <\/p>\n<p>After hearing arguments from both parties, Judge Lawrence Clark Jr. ruled that breathalyzers are not scientifically accurate beyond a 0.15% blood-alcohol reading. Judge Clark Jr. then concluded that without an accurate blood-alcohol reading, the State will not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant Schildt was so intoxicated so as to qualify him for the heightened statutory sentence. He therefore dismissed the charge. <\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/challenge-to-accuracy-of-breat\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Challenge to Accuracy of Breath Test Results in Pennsylvania heading to the State Supreme Court\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlike under Massachusetts OUI Law, in some jurisdictions, the statutory penalties of driving under the influence vary depending on blood-alcohol measurements as determined by a breathalyzer exam or blood test. While trial courts across the nation are becoming increasingly skeptical of breathalyzers, the Pennsylvania Superior Court recently reversed a trial judge&#8217;s decision to dismiss a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breathalyzer-testing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Challenge to Accuracy of Breath Test Results in Pennsylvania heading to the State Supreme Court &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; September 10, 2013<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unlike under Massachusetts OUI Law, in some jurisdictions, the statutory penalties of driving under the influence vary depending on blood-alcohol &#8212; September 10, 2013\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/challenge-to-accuracy-of-breat\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Challenge to Accuracy of Breath Test Results in Pennsylvania heading to the State Supreme Court &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; September 10, 2013\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Unlike under Massachusetts OUI Law, in some jurisdictions, the statutory penalties of driving under the influence vary depending on blood-alcohol &#8212; September 10, 2013\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael DelSignore\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Challenge to Accuracy of Breath Test Results in Pennsylvania heading to the State Supreme Court &#8212; 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