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Jury Acquits, Finds DUI Test Gender Biased

By Jeralyn, Section Court Decisions
Posted on Thu May 01, 2003 at 11:03:07 PM EST
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MADD won't be happy with this decision, but it makes sense to us: A jury has acquitted a Woodstock woman of driving under the influence of alcohol after the defense established, through the testimony of forensic chemist James Woodford, that the DUI test was gender biased .
The jury in Lisa Bufton's drunken driving case acquitted her last month after her attorney argued the breath analysis instrument used by Georgia law enforcement personnel gives falsely high readings when used on women. The Cherokee County jurors said the Intoxilyzer 5000 should be "further evaluated for gender bias."

Bufton's lawyer, Atlanta attorney Billy Spruell, said the Intoxilyzer 5000 is calibrated to men's physiology and the way men's bodies metabolize alcohol. Women metabolize alcohol in a different way, he argued.

...In court, Tennessee chemist James Woodford testified that women given measured amounts of alcohol register higher on breath tests with the Intoxilyzer 5000 than they are supposed to according to a standard weight-versus-drinks chart.

"If you take a man and woman and they're both the same size, give them the same amount of alcohol and you test them on a man's scale, [the woman] is going to be too high," said attorney Spruell.

Woodford said, "Fat tissue plays a small part, but it doesn't account for the high margin of difference between what equal-sized women and men who drink same amount register with the Intoxilyzer 5000."

Woodford said the design of the Intoxilyzer 5000 and interpretation of its printouts are based on a 1930s formula that considers men's metabolism. He said extensive tests weren't done on women because of fear that heavy doses of alcohol would damage their reproductive health.
Not surprisingly, the DA, cops and manufacturer of the Breathalyzer 5000 say its a bogus defense.

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