Massachusetts DUI Law : Mass Lawyer & Attorney for Drunk Driving Arrests in Boston, Worcester, Framingham

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks

In the case of Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 129 S. Ct. 2527, 2532 (2009) (PDF), the United States Supreme Court declared that a defendant in a drug case had the constitutional right to confront and cross-examine a Massachusetts State Police chemist who produced a certificate indicating that a particular substance was, in fact, cocaine. Absent the ability to confront and cross-examine the chemist, the drug certificate was declared inadmissible.

The holding in Melendez-Diaz was based on the Court’s decision in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), wherein the court held that the Confrontation Clause of the U.S. Constitution rendered out of court “testimonial” statements are inadmissible.

This Supreme Court ruling has played out in various drug and gun cases across Massachusetts, where the prosecution has attempted to introduce certificates from chemists and ballisticians wherein items were certified as drugs or guns. Based on Melendez-Diaz, Courts have unanimously excluded this evidence.

The inability to introduce certificates without live testimony from the scientist who conducted the actual scientific testing may play a role in Massachusetts DUI cases. Specifically, Massachusetts courts may prevent the introduction of breathalyzer calibration certificates unless the chemist from the Office of Alcohol Testing who actually certified the breathalyzer is produced for confrontation and cross examination.

Massachusetts breath alcohol testing regulations mandate that breath testing devices and the simulator solution which they use must be tested and certified annually. Absent this annual certification, any breath tests conducted with the uncertified equipment will be rendered inadmissible in court. Although the police officer who administered the breath test routinely appears as a witness, the scientist who tested and certified the breathalyzer as accurate rarely appears. Instead, the prosecution relies on the certificate. This denies the defense the ability to test the veracity and competency of the chemist who issued the breathalyzer certificate.

With the substantial penalties associated with Massachusetts DUI convictions, Massachusetts DUI Lawyers are likely to launch Melendez-Diaz attacks on breathalyzer evidence in the near future.