Nashville Criminal Law Report : Nashville DUI Lawyer & Attorney : Rob McKinney Law Firm : TN Criminal Defense, Domestic Violence : Cheatham, Davidson, Montgomery Counties

In the July 2, 2010 Trial Tips Newsletter published by Elliott Wilcox, Mr. Wilcox discusses the importance of going to the crime scene.  From DUI cases to First Degree Murder cases, going to the scene gives you a real feel for the case.  Here are a few takeaways from the article;

1. The attorney will give better opening statements.  You can see the scene in your mind.  It lets you bring the scene to life.
2. The attorney will be able to give more detail during direct examination.
3. The cross examination will be more detailed.

Here is a perfect example of the benefits of going to the crime scene for the criminal defense attorney and the client.  I went to the scene of a DUI case here in Nashville.  The grade of the pavement where the field sobriety tests were performed were on a 20 degree slope.  The police officer was trained to administer these tests on a level surface.  According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration the sobriety tests can't be reliable in these circumstances.  Result- The DUI charge was reduced.

For those of who are accused of a DUI in Nashville ,Tn. you will get a ton of letters offering to represent you.  At the client interview, if they do one, one question you should ask is do you go to the scene of the crime.

One last thing, I encourage all criminal defense attorneys to sign up for the free trial tips newsletter.  I have been reading them for over a year and I pick up something in every issue.

One word of warning. My law clerk was shot while working at the Davidson County Public Defender's Office. Her advice is to take someone with you in certain parts of town .

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 I thought I would show everyone one what a SCRAM device looks like on Lindsay Lohan.  Ms. Lohan was ordered to wear a Scram device when she failed to show up to court in California.  I expect the SCRAM device to be used more often in Tennessee DUI cases by the courts.  It works much like a breath test. The device senses alcohol from perspiration of the skin.  Once it detects alcohol, it sends a result to the monitoring agency. The accused could be forced to wear it as a condition of probation or bond release.

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I have written about the effects of Red Bull and alcohol , but I just read a excellent post by Lawrence Taylor who writes the DUI Blog.here is an excerpt from his post on the effects of caffeine and alcohol

Caffeine and alcohol have a synergistic effect — that is, they combine to produce an accelerated effect. Rather than sobering a person up, as is commonly believed, coffee can actually increase the symptoms of alcohol.

The definitive studies were done by researchers in Great Britain and reported in an article entitled, "Interactions of Alcohol and Caffeine on Human Reaction Time", appearing in the scientific journal Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine 528 (June 1983).

The conclusions of the scientists:

"Alcohol has always been categorized as a central depressant and caffeine as a central stimulant. Therefore, it should follow that an antagonistic [counter-active] interaction should occur when these two drugs are ingested simultaneously. But as these results illustrate, this is not necessarily the case…

"Caffeine has a synergistic interaction with alcohol…(It) has the effect of potentiating the detrimental effects already induced by alcohol….Motor skills which involve delicate muscular coordination and accurate timing have been found to be adversely affected by caffeine

This study coupled with the Wake Forrest and University of Florida studies clearly show that the caffeine use magnifies coordination problems which may effect the field sobriety tests.

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Can the Field Sobriety Tests in a drunk driving case be effected by the shoes you wear ? The answer is yes.The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration has produced a manual on the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests.In the 2006 manual in lesson VIII-11 ,it states that individuals wearing heels more than two inches should be given the opportunity to remove their shoes.The video will help explain the problem with this factor.

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There are several myths about defending a DUI case.Several years ago Atlanta,Ga DUI lawyer Bubba Head wrote an article on the five myths of defending a DUI case.One of those myths is you can't win a DUI case.You can beat a DUI case if the facts are on your side.Here are some tips on beating your DUI case.

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Men's Health Magazine listed America"s drunkest cities in a recent article.How did they determine the list ? The list was based upon death rates from liver disease, alcohol impaired car crashes , the number of DUI arrests , and the severity of the punishment.Two Tennessee cities made it on the top 100 list. Nashville,Tn was number 14.Memphis ,Tn was number 71.

Last week , I had a hearing where the head of  Metro Nashville Police Department"s Traffic enforcement unit testified on the statistics on DUI arrests and vehicular homicide cases in Nashville.

Here are the numbers:

1.In 2009, there were 4238 DUI arrests and 24 traffic deaths related to impaired driving.

2.In 2008, 5595 DUI arrests and 24 traffic deaths were related to impaired driving.

There was no report of the number of vehicular homicide convictions in these past two years.

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