{"id":414,"date":"2018-02-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baronedefensefirm.lawblogger.net\/blog\/state-paying-forensic-science-lab-250-for-each-dui-conviction-obtained\/"},"modified":"2025-01-08T14:39:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T18:39:02","slug":"state-paying-forensic-science-lab-250-for-each-dui-conviction-obtained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/state-paying-forensic-science-lab-250-for-each-dui-conviction-obtained\/","title":{"rendered":"State Paying Forensic Science Lab $250 for Each DUI Conviction Obtained"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Tennessee, a person convicted of DUI would be ordered to pay a \u201cBlood Alcohol or Drug Determination Test (BADT)\u201d fee as part of their court costs.\u00a0 No BADT fee was charged where a case was dismissed, a not guilty verdict returned, or where a defendant pled to a non-DUI related offense.\u00a0 Then, according to Tennessee law, the BADT fees collected were paid ultimately to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation where they were used for all TBI agency operational costs.\u00a0 The blood testing portion of these fees had recently been increased to $250.00, and the Tennessee forensic lab relied on these BADT fees, and the recent increase, to fund the largest portion of their operating expenses.\u00a0 This is all written in past-tense language because a Tennessee Court of Appeals has recently ruled that this practice was unconstitutional.\u00a0 Specifically, the court found:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Because the money from the $250 BADT fees is placed directly in the intoxicant testing fund which is \u201cdesignated for exclusive use by the TBI,\u201d there is no question that the TBI, an agency of the State, has a direct pecuniary interest in securing convictions. The TBI forensic scientists also have a financial interest in securing convictions because the collection of the BADT fees affects their continued employment and salary, which gives them an incentive to find that defendants\u2019 blood alcohol content is 0.08% or higher.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>There are many interesting things about this opinion, not the least of which is the fact that it lays bare the assertion by the States that their forensic labs are independent.\u00a0 In Michigan for example, the lab techs that test blood samples for alcohol proudly testify that they care not what the results are because they only care about the integrity of the science they employ. In other words, they attempt to hide behind a veil of scientific objectivity. This is a great sound-bite for the jury but that does not make it true.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/state-paying-forensic-science-lab-250-for-each-dui-conviction-obtained\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading State Paying Forensic Science Lab $250 for Each DUI Conviction Obtained\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Tennessee, a person convicted of DUI would be ordered to pay a \u201cBlood Alcohol or Drug Determination Test (BADT)\u201d fee as part of their court costs.\u00a0 No BADT fee was charged where a case was dismissed, a not guilty verdict returned, or where a defendant pled to a non-DUI related offense.\u00a0 Then, according to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-owi"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>State Paying Forensic Science Lab $250 for Each DUI Conviction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tennessee has recently announced that for every DUI conviction, they will pay forensic science labs $250 to run a Blood Alcohol or Drug Determination Test.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/state-paying-forensic-science-lab-250-for-each-dui-conviction-obtained\/\" 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minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/state-paying-forensic-science-lab-250-for-each-dui-conviction-obtained\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/state-paying-forensic-science-lab-250-for-each-dui-conviction-obtained\/"},"author":{"name":"Patrick Barone","@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/da00f897e195cfccca02fe556b53136f"},"headline":"State Paying Forensic Science Lab $250 for Each DUI Conviction 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