DUI judgment: presumed sober.IN THE STATE of Virginia, as in the rest of the country, drivers who register above .08 percent on a breathalyzer breathalyzer Public health A device used to detect alcohol on a suspected drunk driver's breath; see DWI test are presumed to be impaired. Drivers who get hauled before Ian M. O'Flaherty, a general district judge in Fairfax Country, can make a presumption of their own: Their encounter with the Virginia court system will be short and sweet. O'Flaherty believes Virginia's drunk driving laws are unconstitutional, and he has been dismissing cases based on those laws since July. O'Flaherty and his defenders say the assumption that a driver with a blood-alcohol level of .08 percent or higher is impaired violates the driver's right to a presumption of innocence A principle that requires the government to prove the guilt of a criminal defendant and relieves the defendant of any burden to prove his or her innocence. The presumption of innocence, an ancient tenet of Criminal Law, is actually a misnomer. According to the U.S. . Since alcohol affects different individuals differently, O'Flaherty believes it's the state's responsibility to prove a defendant actually was impaired, not the defendant's responsibility to prove she can handle her alcohol. While prosecutors point out that the law affords defendants a right to rebut To defeat, dispute, or remove the effect of the other side's facts or arguments in a particular case or controversy. When a defendant in a lawsuit proves that the plaintiff's allegations are not true, the defendant has thereby rebutted them. TO REBUT. the charges, O'Flaherty says that won't cut it in his courtroom. The local media have called O'Flaherty, who once dismissed five cases in a single week, a "public menace" with a "private vendetta vendetta (vĕndĕt`ə) [Ital.,=vengeance], feud between members of two kinship groups to avenge a wrong done to a relative. Although the term originated in Corsica, the custom has also been practiced in other parts of Italy, in other " against common sense, but the judge is hardly alone in his concern about DUI laws. Supreme courts in other states have ruled the same way as O'Flaherty based on similar reasoning, and neighboring neigh·bor n. 1. One who lives near or next to another. 2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another. 3. A fellow human. 4. Used as a form of familiar address. v. D.C. recently raised its standard for intoxication intoxication, condition of body tissue affected by a poisonous substance. Poisonous materials, or toxins, are to be found in heavy metals such as lead and mercury, in drugs, in chemicals such as alcohol and carbon tetrachloride, in gases such as carbon monoxide, and after a woman was arrested for driving after drinking a single glass of wine. In Massachusetts, state Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty (D-Chelsea) is spearheading a push to eliminate parts of a new DUI bill that he and other legislators say are unconstitutional. As Judge O'Flaherty continues his one-man crusade in Virginia, state prosecutors grow more exasperated. In October Assistant Prosecutor Jenna Sands asked the judge to recuse To disqualify or remove oneself as a judge over a particular proceeding because of one's conflict of interest. Recusal, or the judge's act of disqualifying himself or herself from presiding over a proceeding, is based on the Maxim himself if he wasn't going to consider all the evidence. "I'm going to consider all the evidence," the judge told her. "I'm just not going to have a presumption that requires the defendant to testify." He dismissed the case. |
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