YOUR RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL IS UNDER ATTACK
Your constitutional right to a jury trial in DUI cases is
under attack. The Arizona Supreme Court in
Derendal v. Griffith,
changed the test to determine which misdemeanor cases are eligible for jury
trials. Many judges and most prosecutors are seizing on this
opportunity to strip Arizona citizens of the long held right to jury trials
in DUI cases. Jury trials in all criminal cases in Arizona can be
traced back to territorial days. But it appears that makes no
difference to these judges and prosecutors. In the name of expediency,
these judges and prosecutors want to take aware your right to a jury trial
in DUI cases. Why? The answer is simple. Time and results!
Judges think DUI cases take too much
time. They want to clear their calendars. Doing away with jury
trial in DUI cases is a quick way to accomplish this. Arizona Judges
swore an oath to uphold the United States and Arizona Constitutions.
This assault on our right to jury trials is unconstitutional. These
judges should be ashamed of themselves.
Prosecutors on the other hand, well they could care less
about your constitutional rights. They want convictions and the
easiest way to get convictions is to try DUI cases in front of a single
judge and not a jury. The majority of prosecutors think that anyone
arrested for DUI is guilty. Of course we know that nothing could be
further from the truth. We know that breath machines are ancient,
faulty and unreliable. We know that blood testing in fraught with many
problems and inaccuracies. We also know that police officers sometimes fail
to tell the truth, in other words they lie.
Many DUI defense attorneys around the State of Arizona
are fighting to retain your right to jury trials in DUI cases.
