An Arrest is Not a Conviction

If you have been arrested for DUI, you are not automatically guilty. That basic fact is sometimes lost on many people. Unfortunately, that basic fact is sometimes lost on many lawyers. An arrest is not a conviction.In the United States, you are presumed innocent of any criminal charge. For some reason, this basic right is lost upon too many people. How many times have we seen people falsely arrested? A perfect example is the Duke Lacrosse team members falsely accused of a rape that never happened. In the beginning of that case, the news media practically convicted them of a rape that never happened.

With DUI cases, too many people (sometimes even the accused themselves) simply assume that since they failed a breath test they must be guilty. It's almost like trial by machine. The intox 5000 says you are guilty, so you are guilty.Thankfully, we don't do trial by machine in Georgia. The breath testing devise used in Georgia was designed and manufactured before the Internet, before computer hard drives, and even before the ability to upgrade the firmware of the machine. Almost every other State used updated technology. But, in Georgia, what's good enough for government work could not power a modern 99 cent calculator. The technology is far for state of the art.

In addition, the field sobriety tests performed on people can cause an innocent person to appear guilty. These evaluations have never been validated on over-weight people, on elder people, on people with illness, injury, or infirmity. These "tests" can show false positive results in so many people arrested; yet so many people are convicted based on them.So, what can be done? In this 10 part series, I will discuss DUI Law in Georgia and DUI Defense. I will discuss how an attorney can help protect your rights. What I want to leave the reader with today is something our founding fathers ingrained in our Constitution.

You are presumed innocent. It is the State's burden to present competent evidence to show a jury of your peers that you are guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. You remain innocent until the State meets its very high burden. A machine or the State's stupid human trick field sobriety tests cannot convict you. Only a jury of your peers evaluating the evidence can ultimately decide someone's guilty or innocence. You are never assumed to be guilty no matter what the machine says. The fact that you took a test and allegedly failed does not mean you are guilty. The State has to prove that the machine that tested you was in fact correct.