When you’re charged with any sort of crime, the prosecution and court as a whole work as hard as possible to prove your alleged guilt — even if none exists. Ideally, everyone is innocent until they are proven guilty, but guilty treatment often starts much sooner than conviction. This prejudice and unjust behavior against defendants can easily lead to a violation of their rights. The prosecution may spin stories, put too much faith in the arresting officers, and — of course — try to present as much “evidence” as they can, often glossing over or ignoring the broken procedures that led to the evidence getting collected. And while they do this, they make certain to act as if they know they are going to win. Hopeless parties resist less.

In cases like driving under the influence, the Knoxville arresting officer may start this unfair chain of events by ordering you submit to a blood test. Depending on the circumstances of the arrest, this can escalate to a warrant permitting physical force if you refuse to take the test, but either way, it can lead to those test results showing up in court and used against you. Blood tests are treated as the be-all-end-all of BAC tests, but they are not as infallible as the prosecution would like you to believe. There are, indeed, ways to challenge the results that may even lead to their complete dismissal — as long as you have a strong criminal defense attorney on your side.

How blood tests are used in Knoxville DUI cases

Tennessee takes driving under the influence incredibly seriously. The intentions are good — drunk driving is dangerous and deadly — but the zeal exhibited by law enforcement and prosecutors can hurt more people than it helps. With strong consequences, inherent bias, and a great deal of judgement power in arresting officers, it can be the perfect recipe for rights violations that land innocent people in prison.

For any charge to turn into a conviction, regardless of the case, you need evidence to prove guilt. For DUI cases, the evidence with the most weight are test results that prove the defendant was under the influence of drugs or alcohol behind the wheel. While Breathalyzers and other breath tests work for roadside tests to determine if an arrest is necessary (in theory), those actually under arrest for suspicion of drunk or drugged driving must submit to a chemical — or blood — test.

Blood tests are meant to measure the exact amount of alcohol in the system. This matters, because one digit of difference separates the legal from the not. Any margin of error can get an innocent person convicted. So, the idea is that blood tests are more accurate and less likely to malfunction than a breath machine, and thus carry more weight as evidence. Therefore (and in addition to the fact that results can take weeks to come back), arresting officers rush to get a blood test performed whenever they can. While there are specific procedures and circumstances in place to ensure this is done lawfully, it’s not rare for officers and even other involved law enforcement to skip steps and forgo rules for the sake of ease and time.

For example, to obtain a blood test without your consent, officers must have a warrant or the correct extreme circumstances (such as if you are suspected of causing a deadly accident). This means they can ask you to submit to a blood test without a warrant, but if you refuse, they must get permission to circumvent your right to do that. But not only are getting those warrants relatively easy (as they just need to claim enough suspicion and reason), they also entitle those officers to use as much force as they deem necessary to get that sample. A medical professional may be who administers the test, but your arresting officer could be pinning you down for it. Not to mention, any denials or attempts at refusing testing will undoubtedly show up in the prosecution’s case against you.

Innocent people are not guilty just because they don’t want their personal DNA collected. And even those who are “guilty” still have the right to their own bodies and fair, lawful treatment.

Defenses and challenges against blood test results in DUIs

There is no argument that makes unlawful treatment in court okay, but many claim these extreme measures are justified by the accuracy and validity of the tests themselves. In their opinion, if it gets another “dangerous” driver off the roads, it must be good and right. Unfortunately for prosecutors, though, blood tests aren’t anywhere near as infallible or trustworthy as they’re purported to be. In fact, there are plenty of factors that could affect their validity, including:

• Contaminated or faulty medical equipment
• Improper or incorrect methods of collecting the sample
• Improper transport, handling, or storage of the sample (possibly leading to it to ferment — thus increasing the alcohol content)
• Untrained or incorrectly trained technicians
• Medications like anticoagulants which may falsely contribute
• Any delay time between the arrest and the test, as alcohol takes time to fully absorb into the blood. One could be driving legally upon their arrest but, by the time they get tested, have a higher-than-legal blood alcohol content.

These may all compromise the blood test itself, but they aren’t the only ways it could become inadmissible regardless of the results. Those procedures mentioned earlier are not actually optional. Any mishandling of the evidence or how it was collected can completely invalidate it  — as long as you can prove it happened. That is where your attorney comes in. While outright refusing to take a blood test after being arrested for a DUI may not end well, you do have the right to speak to your legal representative before consenting so you can truly understand your options.

If the test comes back and shows an unlawful result, your attorney works to question both the validity of it and the authority the officer had to administer it. While there are many ways to invalidate such evidence, prosecutors certainly don’t want you to, so this is no easy or light task. A valid blood test will probably be the strongest evidence they have against you, after all. They already consider you guilty; now they’re just working to “prove” it however they can, and they will succeed if you don’t have strong, experienced representation to advocate for your rights and fight for your freedom.

In Tennessee, a DUI conviction at any level means time behind bars, hefty fines, a loss of driving privileges, and a possible lifetime’s worth of social consequences and bias. No matter your circumstances, it is something you want to avoid as much as possible. If you’re in Knoxville, you can go to the knowledgeable and tenacious DUI criminal defense attorneys at Banks & Jones for representation you can trust. Our team knows how to tailor defenses to our clients’ individual needs and cases, and we do it without judgement or blame. To learn about your options and get started, call us today at 865-546-2141 or use our contact form. Do not let biased prosecutors decide your future.