DWI- Eating Before Drinking

To avoid drunk driving and lower your blood alcohol content(BAC) eat before drinking.

When alcohol enters an empty stomach, about 20 percent of it will make its way directly through the stomach walls. The remaining 80- percent will pass through the base of the stomach and enter into the small intestine, from which it is readily absorbed into the blood. Because the body doesn't need to digest the alcohol before admitting it into the blood stream, the small intestine will be open to the alcohol as soon as it hits the stomach.

But if here is food in the stomach it will affect the absorption of alcohol.

Food has to be partially digested in the stomach before it can pass to the small intestine. when the brain senses that food is in the stomach, it commands a muscle at the base of the stomach to constrict, and cut off passage to the small intestine. The muscle is called the pylorus,or pyloric valve. As long as it remains constricted nothing will move out of the stomach and into the small intestine. If the alcohol is ins the stomach along with the food, the alcohol; will also be trapped behind the pylorus and some of the alcohol will begin to break down even before it ever gets into the blood. The overall effect is to significantly slow the absorption of alcohol into the blood.

Police Lineup Guidelines Challenged in New Jersey

Sometimes in cases of robbery and sexual assault eyewitness identification is used to convict innocent defendants.

The Innocence Project , a legal center specializing in overturning wrongful convictions, tells us that two thirds of the 242 DNA exoneration of wrongful convictions since 1989 were based on flawed eyewitness identification. Trial lawyers know its the most dangerous testimony in a courtroom because jurors so readily rely upon it. Those 242 exonerated defendants were lucky enough to have DNA in their evidence jackets. There is no way to know how many others are in prison based on incorrect eyewitness identification but have no DNA to exonerate them.

To show the weakness of such testimony just watch a pro football game on Sunday. Last Sunday Mark Sanchez of the Jets hit his receiver in the corner of the end zone with a referee looking directly at the play from 6 feet away and he ruled it a touchdown. Instant replay caused a reversal because it showed the receiver only had one foot in bounds. This from a professionally trained eyewitness. There is no instant reply from a crime scene.

In New Jersey the eyewitness identification procedure was revised in 2001 to use sequential blind lineups. The former procedure allowed the police to to place the photos side by side to allow the witness to make comparisons.

Under the new procedure the whiteness is shown one picture at a time. The detectives who show the photos don't know who the suspect is which means they can't accidentally or intentionally tip off he witness.

Experts tell us that this procedure will help to lessen the chance of misidentification.

DUI - Alcotest Test Waiting Period

The Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled in State v Chun that the operators of Alcotest 7110 must wait at least 20 minutes before collecting a sample from a person who has been arrested in order to avoid over estimating the reading due to the possible effects of residual alcohol in the mouth. The machine is programmed to prohibit operation of he device before the passage of 20 minutes from the time entered as the time of arrest.

In addition the operator must observe the test subject for twenty minutes prior to the time of the taking of the test to guarantee that no alcohol has entered the person's mouth while the person is waiting to be tested.

Also if the subject swallows anything or regurgitates or the operator notices chewing gum or tobacco or other foreign objects in the person's mouth, the operator must start the 20 minute period anew.

The person must be observed for 20 minutes. It is not enough that the person be arrested in the back of a police car