That’s what I said to my husband during the breakfast hour this morning, while I was working as a short-order cook and waitress for three rather demanding customers (our children). To his credit, he complied and asked how he could help. As a result, I not only got relief, but I got to pick the form it arrived in (my husband packing lunches). Defense counsel are in a far different posture when they ask a judge for relief in DWI cases. Sure, they might get a remedy, but they don’t get to choose its form. Instead, the legislature and the courts have prescribed the relief available for various types of violations of a defendant’s constitutional or statutory rights. Despite the abundance of law on these issues, confusion abounds about the appropriate remedies for the State’s misdeeds, particularly when they occur in an impaired driving case. So, if you’re looking for relief in the following circumstances, here’s your remedy. The State failed to inform the defendant of her statutory implied consent rights before conducting a chemical analysis. The results of the chemical analysis must be suppressed. State v. Shadding, 17 N.C. App. 279 (1973) (reasoning that “[s]uch rights of notification, explicitly given by statute, would be meaningless if the breathalyzer test results could be introduced into evidence despite non-compliance with the statute,” and holding that the State’s failure to offer evidence regarding whether the defendant was advised of his rights under G.S. 20-16.2(a) rendered results of the breath test inadmissible); see also [...]
Faculty Coordinators
