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Bartel v. State8/27/1985
st results.
I fear the weight given to blood test results, especially in civil cases where other and more convincing evidence of drunkenness is available. I fear the testimony of experts who testify that the margin for error in these tests is "2 to 3 percent." Two percent of 0.005985 is 0.0001197. I truly doubt that any machines available here are capable of measuring down to the ten millionth part. If we accept these statements without question, we have been overtaken by a form of doublethink in the guise of metric measures.
Please do not answer that the hospital and doctors used the blood test results for their medical purposes, and therefore the results must be accurate. The medical people here did not need blood tests to determine that this man had been drinking. The nurse wrote "intoxicated" upon the chart the first moment she saw him. That observation was not based on blood test.
For these reasons, I would set a rigid foundational requirement for the admission of blood test evidence. Routine would not be enough. No perfect routine and no perfect machine can escape the impact of the imperfect human being. The majority in this case have elevated routine into infallibility.
I would reverse this case on the grounds that the District Court found evidence of intoxication based on the blood tests for which no proper foundation was laid and for the further reason that the blood test results do not relate to the statutory scheme of weight per volume of blood.
MR. JUSTICE HUNT, dissenting:
I concur in the dissent of Mr. Justice Sheehy.
MR. JUSTICE MORRISON, dissenting:
I concur in the dissent of Mr. Justice Sheehy.
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