-------- Original Message -------- Subject: politech submission Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:12:10 -0700 From: Michael Marking <marking@private> To: declan@private Note: DUI cases thrown out for lack of breathalyzer source code Remark: relevant to voting machines? Source: The following article is from http://tampatrib.com/floridametronews/MGBUBJ5QK9E.html Copy of Article: DUI Defendants Skip Charge By Asking How Test Works Published: Jun 5, 2005 SANFORD - Hundreds of cases involving breath-alcohol tests have been thrown out by Seminole County judges in the past five months because the test's manufacturer will not disclose how the machines work. All four of Seminole County's criminal judges have been using a standard that if a DUI defendant asks for a key piece of information about how the machine works - its software source code, for instance - and the state cannot provide it, the breath test is rejected, the Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday. Prosecutors have said they do not know how many drunken drivers have been acquitted as a result. But Gino Feliciani, the misdemeanor division chief in the Seminole County State Attorney's Office, said the conviction rate has dropped to 50 percent or less. Seminole judges have been following the lead of county Judge Donald Marblestone, who in January ruled that although the information may be a trade secret and controlled by a private contractor, defendants are entitled to it. ``Florida cannot contract away the statutory rights of its citizens,'' the judge wrote. Judges in other counties have said the opposite: The state cannot turn over something it does not possess, and the manufacturer should not have to turn over trade secrets. (end of article) --- Michael Marking <marking@private> Key fingerprint = 5D46 074A 0CC4 FEA2 53AB 1A36 DDF1 4AB7 4BCE 6216 _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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