Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/12pdf/11-1425_cb8e.pdf
Page Number: 47

Cite as:  569 U. S. ____ (2013) 

7 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

the rate at which the suspect will metabolize alcohol. 
Finally, an officer cannot know how long it will take to
obtain  the  blood  sample  once  the  suspect  is  brought
to the hospital.  Under a totality of the circumstances 
test,  an  officer  would  be  called  upon  to  speculate  on 
each of these considerations and predict how long the
most  probative  evidence  of  the  defendant’s  blood­
alcohol  level  would  continue  to  exist  before  a  blood 
sample was no longer reliable.”  State v. Shriner, 751 
N. W. 2d 538, 549 (2008) (footnote omitted).   

The  Court  should  not  adopt  a  rule  that  requires  police  to
guess whether they will be able to obtain a warrant before
“too  much”  evidence  is  destroyed,  for  the  police  lack  reli- 
able information concerning the relevant variables.2 

This  case  demonstrates  the  uncertainty  officers  face 
with  regard  to  the  delay  caused  by  obtaining  a  warrant.
The arresting officer clearly had probable cause to believe
respondent  was  drunk,  but  there  was  no  way  for  the  of­
ficer to quantify the level of intoxication to determine how 
quickly  he  needed  to  act  in  order  to  obtain  probative  evi­
dence.  Another  officer  testified  at  respondent’s  trial  that
it  typically  took  1  ½  to  2  hours  to  obtain  a  drunk-driving
warrant  at  night  in  Cape  Girardeau  County,  Missouri. 
See  App.  53–54.  Respondent  submitted  an  exhibit  sum­
marizing  six  late  afternoon  and  nighttime  drunk-driving
search  warrants  that  suggests  the  time  may  be  shorter. 

—————— 

2 Because the Court’s position is likely to result in delay in obtaining 
BAC  evidence,  it  also  increases  the  likelihood  that  prosecutors  will  be 
forced  to  estimate  the  amount  of  alcohol  in  a  defendant’s  bloodstream 
using BAC numbers obtained hours later.  In practice, this backwards
extrapolation  is  likely  to  devolve  into  a  battle  of  the  experts,  as  each
side seeks to show that stale evidence supports its position.  There is no 
need  for  this  outcome.    Police  facing  inevitable  destruction  situations
need  not  forgo  collecting  the  most  accurate  available  evidence  simply 
because they might be able to use an expert witness and less persuasive
evidence to approximate what they lost.