The Minnesota DWI Case of the Week is: Horarik v. Commissioner of Public Safety, (Unpublished 8/18/2009 Minn. App.).
Mr. Horaik was arrested for a DWI and submitted to a urine test. The laboratory analysis of the urine sample showed an alcohol concentration level of .12.
At his license revocation hearing, Mr. Horaik challenged the constitutionality of Minn. Stat. § 634.15, subd. 1(a)(1), which allows into evidence the laboratory test result without any antecedent testimony from the chemist who performed the test. Mr Horaik argued, among other things, that the laboratory test evidence violated his right of confrontation guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
In Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 51, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 1364 (2004), the United States Supreme Court held that the Confrontation Clause encompasses witnesses' out-of-court statements when those statements are "testimonial" in nature. A laboratory test result offered in a criminal trial against a defendant meets the Crawford definition of a testimonial statement. See, Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 577 U.S. _, _, 129 S.Ct. 2527, 2532 (2009); State v. Caulfield, 722 N.W.2d 304, 310 (Minn. 2006).
The Court of Appeals, however, ruled against Mr. Horarik stating, " The significant distinction, however, is that implied-consent proceedings unlike the criminal proceedings governed by the Crawford rule, are civil in nature." And the "...due process rights associated with criminal trials do not apply. Horarik was not entitled to the protections of the Confrontation Clause in his implied-consent hearing, and his argument for relief on that basis fails."
No comments:
Post a Comment