If you’re not careful in defending yourself, then DWI charges and a subsequent conviction can wreak havoc on your life. Sure, your license can be suspended, making it challenging to carry out your daily responsibilities and visit family and friends, but it can also cause you to lose your job, make it difficult to secure new employment, and tarnish your hard-earned reputation. You obviously want to avoid those penalties as much as possible, but how do you go about defending yourself when the evidence against you is pretty convincing?
Regardless of the apparent strength of the prosecution’s case, you need to analyze your DWI defense options. By doing so, you might find ways to block otherwise damaging evidence from being used against you, which could lead to reduced penalties or even acquittal. So, let’s take a closer look at what you can do to build your criminal defense in a drunk driving case.
Strategies you might be able to use in a DWI case
There are several ways to approach your drunk driving case. Here are a few defense strategies that you might be able to deploy to fight back against the prosecution and the harsh penalties that they’re threatening against you:
- Challenging breath test accuracy: The police and prosecutors are going to act like their case is a slam dunk if they have breath test results showing that you were over the legal limit. But these test results are often erroneous. This is because law enforcement frequently stores these testing devices inappropriately, inadequately maintains and calibrates them, and errantly uses them during test administration. If you can show errors in any of these areas, then you might be able to successfully argue that the breath test results shouldn’t be used against you in court.
- Arguing an illegal traffic stop: Many drunk driving arrests occur after a traffic stop. The police might claim that you were pulled over because you were weaving in your lane or for some other traffic violation, but they must have reasonable suspicion that you’ve committed a crime or probable cause that you’ve committed an infraction before they can justifiably pull you over. If they lacked justification when conducting your stop, then any subsequently gathered evidence is considered illegally obtained and can thus be blocked from being used against you.
- Highlighting an officer’s lack of reliability: Police officer testimony can be damaging in your case. After all, these officers are trained to observe signs of intoxication. But you might be able to diminish the power of their testimony. You can do this by calling other witnesses to testify whose accounts of your behavior differ from the officer’s. It might be worth delving into the officer’s history, too, to see if their credibility has been drawn into question in the past.
- Failure to read you your rights: If the police subjected you to custodial interrogation, then they should’ve informed you of your right to remain silent and your right to an attorney. If they didn’t, then any incriminating statements that you made were illegally obtained and can’t be used against you.
Build the best DWI defense under your circumstances
There are several other defense strategies that you might be able to use in your drunk driving case. You simply have to assess your options and choose those that give you the greatest advantage heading into plea negotiations and trial. With an aggressive gameplan on your side, you’ll hopefully be able to diminish the power of the prosecution’s case and achieve an outcome that protects your future.
