Annie Dookhan, a former forensic chemist at a state forensic laboratory in Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to 27 counts of falsifying test results, misleading investigators, and tampering with evidence. She was sentenced this week to 3-5 years in prison. followed by 2 years of probation. In the course of her career…
The National College for DUI Defense (NCDD) just completed its 3 day summer session, held in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the facilities of Harvard Law School. The College’s mission is to educate lawyers to become more proficient in defense of persons accused of drunk driving. The College’s motto is “Justice Through…
Yesterday the Supreme Court announced its opinion in Williams v. Illinois. The decision was anxiously awaited by those of us who have followed the Supreme Court’s recent Confrontation Clause cases, namely Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts and Bullcoming v. New Mexico. Melendez-Diaz had held that the chemist in a drug case must…
Click below to listen to Lenny Stamm’s interview with DJ Kirk McEwen on WBAL on Thursday, February 2, 2011 at 9 p.m. 01 WBAL-AM Post Delay.mp3 02 WBAL-AM Post Delay.mp3 If you are facing criminal or traffic charges in Maryland state or federal court, call Leonard R. Stamm or Johanna…
Criminal defense lawyers are fond of making analogies to explain themselves to non-lawyers. Analogies can be very useful in closing argument and I intend to discuss some of those analogies in a future blog. Today I want to discuss the DUI defense lawyer as a DUI mechanic or technician. Every…
Maryland jurisdictions have slowly been replacing their 10 year old breathalyzers – affectionately called “breathaliars” by some – Intox EC/IR with the new breathalyzers – the Intox EC/IR II. This machine, manufactured by Intoximeters, Inc. in St. Louis, Mo. has a few improvements over its predecessor, according to the manufacturer.…
An article with the above title caught my attention this morning. “Innocent often fall victim to DUI laws” was published in the Picayune Item in Mississippi on August 24, 2011. The article makes many excellent points. Police, in their anxiousness to enforce the drunk driving laws, arrest many people who…
Title 16 of Maryland’s Transportation Article contains licensing requirements and license offenses. Included in this section is Maryland’s implied consent law (section 16-205.1), which requires drivers detained on suspicion of drunk driving to submit to an alcohol test and face license penalties for failing or refusing the test. The sections…
Once a driver has been arrested for a DUI or DWI in Maryland by state, not federal, police, the arresting officer is required to read a form to the driver, called the DR-15 Form. This form explains the penalties for failing or refusing a breath or blood test. Of course…
In the past year it has come to light that the Intoxilyzer 5000 ENs used in the District of Columbia provided false high readings, and that a number of defendants were convicted, and even sent to jail, as a result of these flawed tests. See 400 drunken-driving convictions in D.C.…