TBI’s Policing for Profit found unconstitutional by Tennessee Courts.
The law giving the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation $250 for each DUI conviction obtained using a blood or breath test is unconstitutional and violates the Due Process provisions of the Tennessee Constitution. The Court of Appeals made this ruling in a decision that could have widespread impact on drunk driving cases the state.
The decision from the Court of Criminal Appeals at Knoxville involved the DUI …case of a woman who argued her blood test should be suppressed because the fee system violated her right to a fair trial and gave the TBI a financial motivation to get convictions. Her case, from Chattanooga, was consolidated with more than 20 similar cases of defendants who gave blood or breath samples to authorities.
The Tennessee Code requires the $250 fee to be deposited into the TBI’s toxicology unit intoxicant testing fund. The fee is paid as part of a defendant’s court costs if there is a conviction, for use by the TBI for agency operational costs. The fee isn’t charged when a case is dismissed, or a not guilty verdict is returned.
The TBI testing came into question when a TBI agent appears to have intentionally given misleading information on a blood test result to show a defendant in violation of the Tennessee DUI law, which requires a finding of guilty if the individuals blood alcohol level is over .08, without further proof of impairment. It was later determined that the blood test results showed the individual’s blood alcohol levels were below the legal limit. The court found that while there were other safeguards in place, knowing funding for positions were dependent on convictions resulted in an unfair prosecution of people accused of DUI.
The decision by the court will not impact every case, especially those were the individual is clearly impaired. Even without blood test results, other evidence of impaired driving, admissions to drinking, failure of field sobriety test and other evidence of impairment can well be sufficient to obtain a conviction.
I fight for my clients right every day and I cannot begin to explain the destruction the government has brought upon innocent people after seizing their money and property (and blood) even when no charges were brought or the person was found innocent. The state and local government still expect to keep what they have illegally seized. The hearing to get my client’s their money and property returned is separate and above any criminal proceedings and, even if the money and property are returned, the state makes them pay a non-refundable fee just to get a hearing. I have even testified in front of a national panel to try to help stamp this unconstitutional abuse of citizens by their government outlawed. I will keep fighting until it is.