Opinion ID: 1899924
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: preservation of blood samples

Text: Houser argues that he was denied due process because of the inability to independently test the blood sample taken at police direction at the time of the accident, and that the results of the police analysis should have been suppressed. The United States Supreme Court has already held that there is no federal constitutional requirement to preserve breath samples taken to determine blood alcohol levels. California v. Trombetta, 467 U.S. 479, 104 S.Ct. 2528, 81 L.Ed.2d 413 (1984). Routine, good faith destruction of the remnants of the sampling showed no conscious effort to suppress exculpatory evidence. More importantly, the Court held, due process requires preservation of evidence only if it is likely to be significant in the suspect's defense. Given the general reliability of properly administered tests, a preserved breath sample is much more likely to prove inculpatory than exculpatory. The breath testing machines and calibrating records and samples were available to impeach the machine's reliability, and the defendant had the right to cross-examine the machine operator to expose potential errors in the administration of the test. We see no difference between the Trombetta rationale for breath samples and the situation regarding blood samples. The Trombetta Court obviously saw its decision as having broad implications when it said We have ... never squarely addressed the Government's duty to take affirmative steps to preserve evidence on behalf of criminal defendants. 104 S.Ct. at 2533. A blood or breath sample has no inherent evidential value. The evidence at trial is not the sample but, rather, the results of tests performed on the sample. Trombetta; State v. Cooper, 391 So.2d 332 (Fla. 3d DCA 1980). The due process question thus is whether the accused has sufficient opportunity to question the results of the tests. There is no indication in this case that the state failed to refrigerate the sample in bad faith. The defendant was free to seek discovery as to the devices used in the testing, section 316.19321(f)4., Fla. Stat. (1983), and to cross-examine the technician who actually performed the test. He was also free to introduce evidence as to the general reliability of blood alcohol testing to further attack the reliability of the results. Finally, section 316.19321(f)3. provides for the defendant to have an independent blood, urine or breath test performed at his own expense. [1] Independent testing is only one tool among several and it does not encompass a prosecutorial duty to produce the state's sample for testing. An accused's due process right to attack the credibility of the results of the tests is preserved, and the extreme sanction of suppression is unnecessary. We therefore hold that the state is not obligated to take affirmative steps to preserve a blood sample, drawn pursuant to section 316.1932, on the behalf of criminal defendants. See State v. Ehlen, 119 Wis.2d 451, 351 N.W.2d 503 (1984). We answer the first certified question in the affirmative.