Giving a Bit of Yourself - Breath & Blood Samples
One of the typical questions asked of a potential jury at a DWI trial is whether or not they would give breath or blood if requested during a DWI investigation. Most people say sure, they would love to prove their innocence and avoid arrest. What most people don’t realize is that you are not given a chance to provide a real breath or blood sample prior to being arrested. That’s right, you are already under arrest for DWI before you are asked to provide a sample. While some officers do ask you to blow into a small portable breathalyzer prior to arrest, those results are not admissible in court and I have never heard of someone not being arrested after taking one of those.
So, should you give the cops a breath or blood sample? Let’s start with the easy (lazy) answer. If you really have had nothing to drink (at all), or really just one (single, uno, standard size) beer or wine, give them whatever they want. It is very difficult to get over a .08 blood alcohol content (the standard for intoxication in Texas) on that small of an amount of alcohol. Anything over that amount is risking things.
Do not make this decision based upon whether or not you feel drunk. Remember, if you’re drunk you don’t know what you’re feeling. There are lots of factors that determine how fast alcohol metabolizes in the body. These factors include gender, weight, stomach food content, liver function, genetics, etc. You also feel the effects of alcohol more when your BAC is going up than when it’s going down. So it’s just best to politely refuse the test and not give the cops and prosecutors more evidence than they already have.
One of the typical questions asked of a potential jury at a DWI trial is whether or not they would give breath or blood if requested during a DWI investigation. Most people say sure, they would love to prove their innocence and avoid arrest. What most people don’t realize is that you are not given a chance to provide a real breath or blood sample prior to being arrested. That’s right, you are already under arrest for DWI before you are asked to provide a sample. While some officers do ask you to blow into a small portable breathalyzer prior to arrest, those results are not admissible in court and I have never heard of someone not being arrested after taking one of those.
So, should you give the cops a breath or blood sample? Let’s start with the easy (lazy) answer. If you really have had nothing to drink (at all), or really just one (single, uno, standard size) beer or wine, give them whatever they want. It is very difficult to get over a .08 blood alcohol content (the standard for intoxication in Texas) on that small of an amount of alcohol. Anything over that amount is risking things.
Do not make this decision based upon whether or not you feel drunk. Remember, if you’re drunk you don’t know what you’re feeling. There are lots of factors that determine how fast alcohol metabolizes in the body. These factors include gender, weight, stomach food content, liver function, genetics, etc. You also feel the effects of alcohol more when your BAC is going up than when it’s going down. So it’s just best to politely refuse the test and not give the cops and prosecutors more evidence than they already have.
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