DUI Blood Test
In the state of Ohio, if you are arrested for an Ohio OVI, you may be subject to a breath, blood, or urine test. Many OVI suspects believe that an Ohio DUI blood test is more accurate than a breath test, but this is simply not true. In fact, there are more ways for a DUI blood test to produce inaccurate results than there are for an Ohio breath test machine, due to the more steps involved in collecting, storing, analyzing, and reporting Ohio blood test results.
Some of the most beneficial defenses to a DUI blood test include:
1. A profile of the forensic laboratory operation and set-up. In order for science to be valid, it requires exactitude in the results. If the lab fails to properly operate within the requirements established by the State of Ohio, their conclusions are unscientific.
2. Improper venipuncture. Before, during, and after blood is drawn from your body, the individual drawing your blood must meet several protocols, including both medical and legal. To ensure compliance with all health and legal codes, site preparation and blood extraction, needle gauge, type of needle, collection and storage tubes, and many more things must be examined.
3. There could have been legal aspects of the Ohio blood test that were compromised. Each blood draw kit must contain very specific requirements to be up to the State standards. The kit used in your specific case must be evaluated to find out if all the required components were present and used in the proper fashion. The officer and technician had to follow the kit steps exactly and the phlebotomist must have followed the hospital’s quality assurance procedures. When it comes to your Ohio OVI arrest, you deserve to be sure that the proper tubes and packaging were used for the storage and transport of your blood.
4. Chain of evidence. The evidence in an Ohio criminal case must meet legal requirements in order to be admitted in court as evidence against you. A very important element of this is the requirement that the arresting officer adequately explained the handling of the evidence once theDUI blood test sample was collected. This requires asking the who, what, when, and where questions. Who touched the sample? What did they do with it? Where was it taken? When did they have possession of it?
5. Procedures at the laboratory. Testing blood for the blood alcohol concentration is done through the use of a Gas Chromatograph. The machine must be examined to make sure it has been properly cleaned and maintained. The reliability of the machine must also be verified. If the machine does not check out, the results the machine produced can not be verified. Many DUI cases throughout the country have shown the errors of these DUI blood test machines.
6. Cross-contamination. All of the machines used to test for the blood alcohol concentration ofOhio OVI suspects are highly susceptible to cross-contamination. These machines are used to test thousands of different blood samples. If the machine was not properly cleaned and calibrated, it is very likely that the results from the first test of any given day will interfere with the results of every other test.
7. Education and training of the testing technician. Many individuals who test the blood of Ohio OVI suspects have not bee trained properly in the correct procedures. Throughout the country, former technicians have come forward and claimed that they were not properly trained by their labs and were not supervised properly. In some cases, it has bee proven that some test results were falsified, resulting in false convictions.
If you’ve been arrested and charged based on an Ohio OVI blood test, know that these tests are not infallible. Peter J. Binning, an Ohio OVI attorney, understands the science behind DUI blood testing and knows exactly how to defend you against this type of evidence. Call right no for a free consultation!