Court Opinion

ID: 9695494
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:20:56.075823+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:12.787642
License: Public Domain

BOURCIER, Justice,
with whom Justice LEDERBERG joins, dissenting.
I would respond in the negative to questions one and two and need not answer the third question that has been certified to us from the Superior Court for the reasons hereinafter set out.
I
Certified Question 1
“In view of State v. Timms, 505 A.2d 1132 (R.I.1986), should R.I.Gen.Laws § 31-27-2(c) be interpreted to preclude, in a case involving an alleged violation of R.I.Gen.Laws § 31-27-2.2 (driving under the influence, death resulting), the admission at trial of the results of breathalyzer, blood or urine tests at trial, when the breath, blood or urine samples were seized without the defendant’s consent and pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant?”
In a felony prosecution for driving under the influence of liquor or drugs, death resulting, pursuant to G.L.1956 § 31-27-2.2, I would not bar the admission of test results derived from the chemical analysis of a defendant’s breath, blood or urine when such samples were seized without a defendant’s consent but had been taken pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant. I would not bar admission of that evidence based on the questionable dicta found in State v. Timms, 505 A.2d 1132 (R.I.1986), dicta that was later unceremoniously canonized in State v. St. Jean, 554 A.2d 206, 211 (R.I.1989), without any mention whatsoever of Timms, and without the benefit of any meaningful judicial analysis. I read the plain language of § 31-27-2(e) as only barring the admission of nonconsensual chemical test results in misdemeanor prosecutions under subsection (a) in that particular statute.
First, the Timms case. That case, simply put, created bad law out of mere dicta. Timms, it should be noted, had been charged only with two counts of driving so as to endanger, death resulting, in violation of § 31-27-1. Id. at 1133. Nothing in that particular statutory offense required any proof that Timms had operated her vehicle while under-the-influence of any intoxicating liquor or drugs. Section 31-27-1 requires proof only that an operator has operated his or her vehicle in reckless disregard of the safety of others. See State v. Bettencowrt, 723 A.2d 1101, 1106 (R.I.1999). Following her Superior Court jury trial and conviction, Timms challenged that conviction in her appeal to this Court.
In her appeal, she questioned only a single evidentiary trial ruling made by the trial justice. That evidentiary challenge concerned only whether the two police de*1175partment consent forms that she earlier had signed, consenting to the taking of a sample of her blood for chemical analysis, sufficiently complied with the particular consent form prescribed in G.L.1956, § 5-37.3^4 of the Confidentiality of Health Care Information Act. Timms, 505 A.2d at 1135. Thus, her sole challenge to her conviction concerned only the admissibility of her medical record in light of the requirements of the Confidentiality of Health Care Information Act. Therefore, nothing in Timms’s appeal called for the Court in that case to undertake its hypothetical analysis concerning the issue of consent as it applied to the taking and subsequent testing of her blood. There was neither logical reason nor relevant purpose for this Court in that appeal to have indulged in speculation about whether, if Timms had been prosecuted for violation of either § 31-27-2 or § 31-27-2.2 instead of § 31-27-1, that her prior consent to the taking of a sample of her blood in either of those particular prosecutions would have been required. It is important to note that a defendant’s required prior consent to the chemical analysis of a sample of his or her blood, breath or urine is provided for only in § 31-27-2. That statute, by its very wording, applies only to misdemeanor prosecutions for violation of § 31-27-2(a) and was never intended by the Legislature to be impliedly applicable also in felony prosecutions pursuant to § 31-27-1 (driving so as to endanger), or § 31-27-2.2 (driving under the influence, death resulting). Thus, consideration of those statutes was not relevant to the single appellate issue that had been raised by Timms in her appeal and was not in any way necessary to the determination' of that issue in her appeal.
As I read Timms, it becomes obvious that its dicta misadventure was prompted by the Court’s obvious failure to comprehend why the Legislature specifically provided for a suspected driver’s prior consent to the chemical testing of his or her breath, blood or urine only in a misdemeanor § 31-27-2 prosecution, and did not provide for that same prior consent and testing in a felony § 31-27-1 prosecution for reckless driving, serious injury resulting, or in a § 31-27-2.2 driving under the influence, death resulting prosecution. That perplexity is evident from the following excerpt from Timms:
“Both statutes concern the same subject matter, namely driving in a manner so as to threaten public safety. Furthermore, in addition to the already-enacted §§ 31-27-1 and 31-27-2, the Legislature subsequently created § 31-27-2.2, ‘Driving under the influence of liquor or drugs, resulting in death.’ The consent safeguards in § 31-27-2.2 are also not explicitly in its text, yet the Legislature would not have enacted two separate driving-under-the-influence sections, intending that the consent safeguards apply only to one.” Timms, 505 A.2d at 1136.
That comment, I believe, exposes the Timms Court’s failure to appreciate that the chemical testing of a suspected operator’s breath, blood or urine was “designed deliberately to facilitate [a defendant’s] conviction, [and] not to shield him” from prosecution and conviction. White v. Maryland, 89 Md.App. 590, 598 A.2d 1208, 1211 (1991) (quoting Brice v. State, 71 Md.App. 563, 526 A.2d 647, 649 (1987)). Indeed, the Timms Court actually and repeatedly refers to the “consent safeguards” as being intended to protect the suspected drunk driver. Such references reflect, I believe, that the Timms Court misapprehended for whom the alleged statutory “consent safeguards” were intended, a misapprehension that today only two justices of this Court continue to espouse.
I believe that this Court should no longer regard Timms as valid judicial precedent, and that Timms should be reversed. Justices Lederberg and Flanders join with me in that regard, and thus, on this matter, as we constitute a majority of this Court, State v. Timms is reversed. The *1176reversal of Timms does not, however, signal the end of this Court’s response to the first certified question posed to us. There remains for consideration, the ancillary inquiry posed to us in that question concerning whether, in a driving under the influence, death resulting prosecution, pursuant to G.L. § 31-27-2.2, the test results of a defendant’s breath, blood, or urine sample taken without a defendant’s prior consent, but taken pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant, later are admissible as evidence in that defendant’s trial.
With regard to this Court’s response to that portion of the inquiry posed to us in Certified Question One, Justice Lederberg and I would respond that chemical test results, derived from a sample of a non-consenting suspected operator’s breath, blood or urine, taken pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant, would be admissible as evidence in a felony prosecution for driving under the influence, death resulting, pursuant to § 31-27-2.2. In that regard, Justice Goldberg and the Chief Justice conclude that, in view of Timms, § 31-27-2(c) does not permit, in a case alleging a violation of § 37-27-2.2 (driving under the influence, death resulting) the admission at trial of the results of breathalyzer, blood or urine tests, when the breath, blood, or urine samples were seized without the defendant’s consent pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant. Justice Flanders concludes that § 31-27-2(c) applies only to misdemeanor prosecutions; therefore, he concurs with Justice Lederberg and myself that Timms does not bar the admission at trial of the results of breathalyzer, blood, or urine tests that were seized without the defendant’s consent via a search warrant. However, he believes that § 31-27-2.1 does bar any such testing or seizure of the defendant’s blood, breath or urine without a defendant’s pri- or consent.
I believe, as was said in State v. Bruskie, 536 A.2d 522, 524 (R.I.1988), that the “goal of legislation against drunken driving *** is to reduce the carnage occurring on our highways attributable to persons who imbibe alcohol and then drive[,]” and the objective of those statutes is “to remove from the highway drivers who by drinking become a menace to themselves and to the public.”
This Court has often proclaimed that when interpreting legislative enactments, it does so with a view towards carrying out the intent and purpose of the particular legislation, and in doing so, gives the legislation “what appears to be the meaning that is most consistent with its *** obvious purpose.” Kirby v. Planning Board of Review of Middletown, 634 A.2d 285, 290 (R.I.1993) (quoting Zannelli v. Di Sandro, 84 R.I. 76, 81, 121 A.2d 652, 655 (1956)). See also State ex rel. Town of Middletown v. Anthony, 713 A.2d 207, 210 (R.I.1998).
I believe that the majority’s response today, barring the chemical test results of a sample of a non-consenting suspected alcohol- or drug-impaired drivers’ breath, blood or urine in § 31-27-1 and § 31-27-2.2 felony prosecutions, serves to ignore and frustrate the Legislature’s clearly expressed intent and mandate found in § 31-27-2. That statute, § 31-27-2, only requires a suspected operator’s prior consent to chemical testing in misdemeanor no injury-fender-bender prosecutions, and not in felony prosecutions, pursuant to § 31-27-1 and § 31-27-2.2. Nothing can be clearer than the specific wording employed by the Legislature when enacting § 31-27-2(b)(l). That section says loud and clear that its prior consent to chemical testing requirement applies only to “[a]ny person charged under subsection (a)” of § 31-27-2, and subsection (a) specifically concerns only misdemeanor prosecutions.29 It states:
*1177“31-27-2. Driving under influence of liquor or drugs. — (a) Whoever operates or otherwise drives any vehicle in the state while under the influence of any intoxicating liquor, drugs, toluene, or any controlled substance as defined in chapter 28 of title 21, or any combination thereof, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished as provided in subsection (d) of this section.
(b)(1) Any person charged under subsection (a) of this section whose blood alcohol concentration is one-tenth of one percent (.1%) or more by weight as shown by a chemical analysis of a blood, breath, or urine sample shall be guilty of violating subsection (a) of this section. **=:= (emphasis added)
(2) ***
(c) In any criminal prosecution for a violation of subsection (a) of this section, evidence as to the amount of intoxicating liquor, toluene, or any controlled substance as defined in chapter 28 of title 21, or any combination thereof in the defendant’s blood at the time alleged as shown by a chemical analysis of the defendant’s breath, blood, or mine or other bodily substance shall be admissible and competent, provided that evidence is presented that the following conditions have been complied with:
(1) The defendant has consented to the taking of the test upon which the analysis is made. Evidence that the defendant had refused to submit to the test shall not be admissible unless the defendant elects to testify.” (Emphasis added.) 30
I am unable to join with the majority of this Court who opine that chemical test result evidence of a defendant driver’s breath, blood or urine, taken following an incident in which that defendant’s vehicle has killed or permanently crippled some innocent person on our public highways, should be inadmissible and barred as evidence of impairment in the trial of the death-causing driver. The majority’s *1178“bai’-all-prohibit-aH” position serves but one senseless purpose, namely, to shackle our state prosecutors in their attempt to prosecute and convict defendants charged with felony violations of § 31-27-1 and § 31-27-2.2. It also serves, sub silencio, actually to revive and reinstate the Timms dicta rule, that for the past fourteen years only has coddled and insulated alcohol- and drug-impaired drivers from felony prosecution and conviction. Pursuant to what the majority does in this proceeding, those alcohol- or drug-impaired drivers who kill and maim innocent people can continue to escape felony prosecution simply by refusing to consent to an officer’s request to take a breath, blood or urine sample. In that event, the suspected felon then will be charged with failing to consent to give a breath, blood or urine sample for testing, a misdemeanor, the penalty for which will be a short license suspension and a small fine. That is a far cry from what the Legislature intended when it enacted stiff 10-year jail sentences for drivers convicted for violations of § 31-27-1 and for no less than 5 and up to 15 years for convictions under § 31-27-2.2.31
In his concurring opinion, the Chief Justice candidly acknowledges “that common sense should dictate that the consent of one who has committed the crime of driving under the influence of drugs or a controlled substance resulting in death should not be required as a condition precedent to obtaining a blood sample by a physician or qualified medical technician for the purpose of testing.” However, he then retreats from that position by adding that the “incontrovertible truth is that our felony statutes, § 31-27-1 and § 31-27-2.2, do not contain such a statement.” Indeed that is true, but is nothing more than a self-created truism. The undeniable truth is that within those very same statutes as enacted by the General Assembly there is absolutely no language providing for any condition precedent to obtaining a suspected blood sample and absolutely no language requiring a suspected driver’s prior consent for the taking of a sample of his or her blood, breath or urine for chemical testing purposes. Instead, and in fact, it was this Court, acting on its own initiative in Timms, that chose to judicially write into those statutes the very consent requirements that now plague us. Thus, all that really is needed now to correct that problem is for this Court to carry out the effect of our reversal today of Timms, and to do away with the judicially-created prior consent requirements that this Court created in that case. No legislation actually is necessary. This Court can simply take out what it put in, and without any further quibbling, the law would then be exactly what the Chief Justice concedes that it should be. In short, this Court, having created the suspected driver’s prior consent edict, now can — and should — rescind what it created.
Justice Goldberg’s opinion, in which the Chief Justice joins, appears to ignore the troubling implications that will flow from the opinion in response to Certified Question One, and seeks to justify their prior consent viewpoint in all cases with the aid of the Latin phrase “noscitur a sociis,”32 as well as by citing to what little remains of Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 72 S.Ct. 205, 96 L.Ed. 183 (1952). They embellish their Rochin cite with misplaced compassionate concern for those aleohol- or drug-impaired drivers who kill innocent people on our highways and who cause the carnage that our Legislature so deplores. They stress in their concern that even the *1179taking of a small sample of breath, blood, or urine from an alcohol- or drug-impaired driver would inflict a profound and lasting harm or would enhance the “real danger a cocktail of blood, needles and a resistant, intoxicated motorist presents to those who attempt to subdue the [alcohol or drug-laden] suspect in order to draw blood.”
It is difficult for me to accept the opinion that Rochin labels the simple procedure utilized in the taking of a blood sample from a chemically-impaired driver as a sort of medieval torture concocted in some dark medieval dungeon, and which law enforcement officials should never be permitted to utilize in attempting to prosecute an alcohol- or drug-impaired driver. Rochin, in fact, was virtually emasculated by the United States Supreme Court less than five years after it was decided. See Breithaupt v. Abram, 352 U.S. 432, 77 S.Ct. 408, 1 L.Ed.2d 448 (1957). What Justice Goldberg and the Chief Justice in this case today view as constituting a “cocktail of blood and needles,” the United States Supreme Court in Breithaupt views differently:
“Modern community living requires modern scientific methods of crime detection lest the public go unprotected. The increasing slaughter on our highways, most of which should be avoidable, now reaches the astounding figures only heard of on the battlefield. The States, through safety measures, modern scientific methods, and strict enforcement of traffic laws, are using all reasonable means to make automobile driving less dangerous.
“As against the right of an individual that his person be held inviolable, even against so slight an intrusion as is involved in applying a blood test of the kind to which millions of Americans submit as a matter of course nearly every day, must be set the interests of society in the scientific determination of intoxication, one of the great causes of the mortal hazards of the road. And the more so since the test likewise may establish innocence, thus affording protection against the treachery of judgment based on one or more of the senses. Furthermore, since our criminal law is to no small extent justified by the assumption of deterrence, the individual’s right to immunity from such invasion of the body as is involved in a properly safeguarded blood test is far outweighed by the value of its deterrent effect due to public realization that the issue of driving while under the influence of alcohol can often by this method be taken out of the confusion of conflicting contentions.” Id at 439-40, 77 S.Ct. at 412, 1 L.Ed.2d at 452-53.
The Supreme Court additionally noted that:
“due process is not measured by the yardstick of personal reaction or the sphygmogram of the most sensitive person, but by that whole community sense of ‘decency and fairness’ that has been woven by common experience into the fabric of acceptable conduct. It is on this bedrock that this Court has established the concept of due process. The blood test procedure has become routine in our everyday life. It is a ritual for those going into the military service as well as those applying for marriage licenses. Many colleges require such tests before permitting entrance and literally millions of us have voluntarily gone through the same, though a longer, routine in becoming blood donors. Likewise, we note that a majority of our States have either enacted statutes in some form authorizing tests of this nature or permit findings so obtained to be admitted in evidence. We therefore conclude that a blood test taken by a skilled technician is not such ‘conduct that shocks the conscience,’ Rochin, supra, at 172[, 72 S.Ct. 205], nor such a method of obtaining evidence that it offends a ‘sense of justice,’ Brown v. Mississippi, 1936, 297 U.S. 278, 285-286, 56 S.Ct. 461, 464-465, 80 L.Ed. 682.” Brei-*1180thaupt, 352 U.S. at 436-37, 77 S.Ct. at 410-11, 1 L.Ed.2d at 451-52.
I also question the misplaced emphasis in Justice Goldberg’s opinion upon the inability of the state’s appellate counsel to respond in detail to a hypothetical question posed at oral argument regarding the manner in which a suspected alcohol- or drug-impaired driver’s blood sample would be taken. Appellate counsel’s response, whatever it might have been, would have been of no consequence. The Legislature has long ago, proscribed the procedure to be employed in the taking of a suspected driver’s blood sample. In misdemeanor prosecutions under § 31-27-2, there is a clearly established procedure set out for the chemical analysis of a suspected driver’s breath, blood or urine. That procedure requires such testing to be undertaken only with equipment approved by the director of the state Department of Health, and administered “by an authorized individual.” In addition, the driver who is suspected of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs must be afforded the opportunity to have an additional chemical test performed by a doctor or professional of his or her own choosing, and the officer arresting or so charging the person must notify the suspected driver of that right and afford him or her a reasonable opportunity to exercise that right. Refusal to permit that additional chemical test within a reasonable time would render inadmissible any evidence derived from the original test report.
In sum, I believe that such statutory safeguards as described above effectively answer the concerns of Justice Goldberg and the Chief Justice. They eliminate any potential risks associated with the administering of those chemical tests and further provide the suspected alcohol- or drug-impaired driver with a sufficient opportunity to take additional chemical tests in an environment and a manner substantially of his or her own choosing. While Justice Goldberg’s opinion expresses remarkable and compassionate, but certainly misplaced, concern for the rights of alcohol and drug-laden drivers on our public highways, I cannot help but observe that the rights of the general public to travel those same roads with some modicum of safety is almost completely ignored in their calculus.
Also ignored in that calculus is the unfortunate' effect their response to question one will have on all future felony prosecutions of persons charged with driving under the influence resulting in death or in severe personal injuries to some unfortunate person or persons.
In light of what a majority of this Court today opines, the Legislature’s recently enacted, and much heralded, lowering of the statutory under the influence presumption from one tenth of one percent to one eighth of one percent effectively has been neutralized and essentially becomes useless. See P.L.2000, ch. 264. The Legislature’s good intention in hopes of assisting state prosecutors to rid our highways of alcohol- and drug-impaired drivers causing the carnage on our public highways has been scuttled. All that a driver who is suspected of being impaired and who has caused a highway fatality need do to avoid conviction and imprisonment is to say “no” to an arresting officer’s request that he or she consent to the giving of a sample of his or her breath, blood or urine for purposes of the chemical testing. In that event, in the absence of an available eyewitness willing to testify at trial as to the manner of the defendant’s driving, the suspected alcohol- or drug-impaired driver, whose vehicle has just killed or maimed some innocent person or persons on a public highway, will avoid conviction and jail. His or her only punishment simply then will be a civil “tap on the wrist” for refusing to consent to the chemical testing procedure. That “tap on the wrist” could be but a short suspension of his or her license to operate and a small fine.
Justice Lederberg joins with me in concluding that breath, blood and urine chemical testing laws never were intended to *1181protect alcohol- or drug-impaired drivers whose impairment brings about and causes fatal highway collisions. We believe that such laws were intended instead to protect the public by enhancing the ability of state prosecutors to deal effectively with and to convict those particular drivers (White, 598 A.2d at 1211), and “to rid our highways of the drank driving menace.” Brice, 526 A.2d at 649.
II
Certified Question 2
“Does the statutory language of RIGL 31-27-2.1, the Breathalyzer Refusal Statute, preclude members of law enforcement from obtaining a judicially authorized search warrant to seize a defendant’s blood for alcohol or drug testing?”
We are asked in this certified question to decide whether, in a prosecution for driving under the influence, death resulting, pursuant to § 31-27-2.2, law enforcement officers are precluded by § 31-27-2.1 from obtaining samples of a defendant’s breath, blood or urine pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant, procured pursuant to G.L. § 12-5-2, following a defendant’s refusal to consent to the taking thereof.
I would respond to that question in the negative. My reason for so doing, I believe, is dictated by our long-standing rule of statutory interpretation that posits when the language of a statute is clear and unambiguous this Court should not search beyond the statute for a different meaning because “[i]n such a case the statute declares itself.” Bouchard v. Price, 694 A.2d 670, 680 (R.I.1997) (Flanders, J., concurring). “[A] ‘court is not at liberty to indulge in a presumption that the Legislature intended something more than what it actually wrote in the law.’ ” In the Matter of the Civil Commitment of J.G., 322 N.J.Super. 309, 730 A.2d 922, 929-30 (Ct.App.Div.1999) (quoting Graham v. City of Asbury Park, 64 N.J.Super. 385, 165 A.2d 864 (Ct.Law.Div.1960), rev’d on other grounds, 69 N.J.Super. 256, 174 A.2d 244 (Ct.App.Div.1961), aff'd, 37 N.J. 166, 179 A.2d 520 (1962)). Additionally, I respond to the certified question in the negative because I believe that the legislative purpose and intent that prompted the enactment of § 31-27-2.1 becomes readily apparent from its legislative origin and history, a genesis that is entirely separate and distinct from that of § 31-27-2.2.
The concept of requiring consent first was conceived in 1959 when the Legislature amended § 31-27-2. See P.L.1959, ch. 101, § 1. That amendment, as noted by the late Justice Kelleher in State v. Lussier, 511 A.2d 958, 959 (R.I.1986), allowed for the admission of evidence gained from the chemical analysis of a defendant’s breath, blood or urine sample in a § 31-27-2 misdemeanor prosecution for driving under the influence. Admissibility of that evidence, however, was conditioned upon the defendant’s prior consent to the chemical testing procedure, and upon additional competent evidence being presented at trial “bearing on the issue of whether the defendant was in fact under the influence of intoxicating liquor.” Id.
The Legislature had envisioned its 1959 amendment to § 31-27-2 as a valuable means of assisting city, town and state law enforcement officials to more expeditiously dispose of the great numbers of driving-under-the-influence cases coming into the various District Courts. That legislative aim, however, fell far short of accomplishing its intended goal, which was to encourage the entry of pleas by defendants in § 31-27-2 misdemeanor prosecutions and thus avoid the necessity for a trial in those cases. However, the amendment provided no incentive for a defendant’s plea because it failed to provide any penalty for refusing to consent.
Seven years later, the Legislature once again took aim at curbing the escalating carnage on our public highways caused by drivers being under the influence of alcohol or drugs. In 1966, the Legislature *1182amended chapter 27 of title 31 by adding § 31-27-2.1. See P.L.1966, ch. 215, § 1. That statute introduced for the first time in Rhode Island, a so-called driver’s “implied consent” law, declaring that any person operating a motor vehicle within the state is deemed to have given consent to the chemical testing of his or her breath, blood or urine.
Incorporated as part of that new implied consent law were statutory presumptions that presumed a defendant to have been operating under the influence if the chemical test performed indicated the presence of .10 percent or more, by weight, of alcohol in the defendant’s blood. Thus, for the first time in a prosecution for driving under the influence, that presumption alone could support a defendant’s conviction pursuant to § 31-27-2. That implied consent law, and its testing procedure providing for the chemical analysis of a motorist’s breath, blood or urine, only could have been enacted and intended to aid and assist in the prosecution of misdemeanor violations for driving under the influence, pursuant to § 31-27-2, because in 1966 there was no other then-existing statute that prohibited anyone from operating a motor vehicle in this state while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Thus, the Legislature, it must be noted, had a dual purpose for enacting § 31-27-2.1 in 1966. The first and primary purpose, as discussed supra, was to assist city, town and state police departments in more effectively and expeditiously prosecuting and disposing of misdemeanor driving under the influence cases.33 Scores of such driving-under-the-influence cases had been constantly clogging the various District Court trial calendars, primarily because prior to the enactment of § 31-27-2.1, expert medical opinion was required to be presented in the trial of such cases to prove the “under-the-influence” element in that misdemeanor offense and it was difficult to schedule and arrange for the presentation of that expert evidence from medical doctors. See, e.g., State v. Poole, 97 R.I. 215, 197 A.2d 163 (1964). By virtue of § 31-27-2.1, however, the chemical test result of a defendant’s breath, blood, or urine sample was made admissible as evidence of the amount of alcohol in a defendant’s blood, and if it revealed an alcohol concentration equal to or exceeding one-tenth of 1 percent, that evidence could lead to a conviction if coupled with other competent evidence of the relationship of that percentage of alcohol upon the defendant’s ability to safely operate his or her vehicle.
Secondly, the Legislature anticipated that by making chemical test results admissible as proof of culpability, a defendant, after being tested and found to have the presumptive amount of alcohol in his or her blood, breath or urine, then would realize the futility and risk of insisting upon trial and incurring the attendant legal expenses and, instead, would readily opt to enter a plea. However, that legislative expectation never materialized. The Legislature in its 1966 enactment, although providing for chemical testing, made that testing procedure again subject to the defendant’s prior consent to be tested and neglected to provide for any criminal or financial penalty for those suspected drivers who refused to give their consent. Thus, with little incentive to consent, few defendants did consent. From 1966 onward, all will acknowledge that driving-under-the-influence cases escalated in numbers and simply languished in the District Courts.
In 1982, the Legislature, in hopes of “beefing up” the evidentiary effect of chemical testing result evidence in § 31-27-2 misdemeanor prosecutions, and hoping to avoid unnecessary and time-eonsum-*1183ing trials in those misdemeanor cases, amended § 31-27-2. See P.L.1982, ch. 176, § 1. That amendment deleted from § 31-27-2 its previous requirement for additional competent evidence of intoxication in addition to the chemical test results in prosecutions pursuant to that statute, but again did little to assist in unclogging the logjam of misdemeanor driving-under-the-influence cases then pending in the District Courts.
In May 1983, the Legislature, obviously aware of, and now more alarmed by the escalating numbers of highway deaths and serious injuries being caused by aleohol- and drug-impaired drivers on our state highways, enacted two consecutive statutory amendments aimed at finally curbing that carnage. First, P.L.1983, ch. 227, was enacted to amend section 1(b) of § 31-27-2. That amendment provided for a definite finding of intoxication and guilt if chemical test result evidence indicated a one-tenth of 1 percent or more blood alcohol concentration in a defendant’s blood. The language of the amendment provided:
“Any person charged under subsection (a) of this section whose blood alcohol concentration is one-tenth of 1% or more by weight as shown by a chemical analysis of a blood, breath or urine sample shall be guilty of violating subsection (a) of this section. This provision shall not preclude a conviction based on other admissible evidence.” P.L.1983, ch. 227.
As a result of P.L.1983, ch. 227, the necessity for prosecution expert testimony to establish and relate the effect of that percentage of alcohol to a defendant’s ability to safely operate his or her vehicle was eliminated. The second amendment enacted in May 1983, amended § 31-27-2.1. See P.L.1983, ch. 228. What divides this Court today in responding to Certified Question Two is the wording employed by the Legislature in one particular sentence in that amendment. That sentence reads:
“If such a person having been placed under arrest refuses upon the request of a law enforcement officer to submit to a test, as provided in section 31-27-2, as amended, none shall be given, but an administrative judge of the division of administrative adjudication, upon receipt of a report of a law enforcement officer that he [or she] had reasonable grounds to believe the arrested person had been driving a motor vehicle within this state under the influence of intoxicating liquor, toluene, or any controlled substance as defined in chapter 21-28 of the general laws, or any combination thereof, that the person had been informed of his or her rights in accordance with Section 31-27-3, that the person had been informed of the penalties incurred as a result of noncompliance with this section, and that the person had refused to submit to the test upon the request of a law enforcement officer, shall promptly order that the person’s operator’s license or privilege to operate a motor vehicle in this state be immediately suspended and that the person’s license be surrendered within five (5) days of notice of suspension.” P.L.1983, ch. 228, § 1.
It is clear to me that the Legislature intended the implied consent law originally enacted in 1966 for use only in misdemeanor prosecutions for driving under the influence, pursuant to § 31-27-2. As noted supra, in 1966 there was no other statute that made driving while under the influence a criminal offense. So, out of necessity and plain common sense, the implied consent to chemical testing procedure enacted by the Legislature had nowhere else to go but into § 31-27-2, particularly because the Legislature in 1982, by way of P.L.1982, ch. 176, already had provided for the chemical testing procedure in misdemeanor prosecutions, pursuant to § 31-27-2.
In 1983, the Legislature enacted P.L. 1983, ch. 228, and provided for the imposition of a financial penalty upon a defendant who refused to consent to chemical testing. In doing so, I believe that the Legislature envisioned that a suspected driver more *1184readily would opt to consent to a chemical test rather than incur the financial penalty that would result from his or her refusal to consent. Of course, any chemical testing still would have to be performed in accordance with the testing procedure provided for in § 31-27-2.
Common sense mandates that the minor penalty that is required to be imposed upon a non-consenting defendant pursuant to § 31-27-2.1 fits only into the misdemeanor offense that is proscribed in § 31-27-2 and certainly does not fit into the felony offense proscribed in § 31-27-2.2. I am hard-pressed to believe that the majority actually can believe that a small fine and short license suspension is a fitting penalty for a defendant’s refusal to consent in a driving under the influence, death resulting, felony prosecution, pursuant to § 31-27-2.2, knowing that a refusal could deprive the state of its ability to prove the defendant’s guilt, and would allow that defendant to walk free and avoid a possible fifteen-year jail sentence.
I would also point out that the Uniform Vehicle Code and Model Traffic Ordinance, prepared by the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances, specifically excludes any requirement for a defendant’s prior consent to chemical testing in felony driving-under-the-influence cases in which death or serious injuries are involved. The Uniform Vehicle Code provides that a driver, when arrested in those felony cases, can be “compelled by a police officer to submit to a test or tests of driver’s blood, breath or urine to determine the alcohol concentration or the presence of other drugs.” Uniform Vehicle Code § 6-210 — “Chemical test of drivers in serious personal injury or fatal crashes” (1992).34
*1185I conclude from the legislative history surrounding § 31-27-1 (driving so as to endanger, death resulting); § 31-27-2 (driving under the influence — misdemean- or); § 31-27-2.1 (refusal to submit to chemical test); § 31-27-2.2 (driving under the influence of liquor or drugs resulting in death); and § 31-27-2.6 (driving under the influence of liquor or drugs, resulting in serious bodily injury), that the Legislature intended to treat the alcohol- or drug-impaired driver who had just killed and/or permanently maimed some innocent person on a public highway quite differently than a misdemeanor driving-under-the-influence defendant, charged simply with erratic driving or who had been involved in a minor fender-bender collision involving no death or injuries.
In the usual run-of-the-mill misdemean- or case, pursuant to § 31-27-2(a), the Legislature never intended to subject those hundreds of suspected drivers, who annually are charged, to costly and time consuming chemical testing without first giving their consent. The wording employed in § 31-27-2.1, that “none shall be given,” was only intended to preclude any such chemical testing in those misdemeanor prosecutions, even if attempted pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant. Like the Uniform Vehicle Code, I believe, however, that § 31-27-2.1 has no application to felony prosecutions for driving-under-the-influence in which death or serious injuries have been inflicted. Had the Legislature ever intended for § 31-27-2.1 to be applicable in those felony statutes, it certainly knew how to do so when enacting those felony statutes, yet it did not do so. This Court should not read into or judicially legislate into those statutes what the Legislature never intended. See Lopes v. Phillips, 680 A.2d 65, 69 (R.I.1996); Universal Winding Co. v. Parks, 88 R.I. 384, 391, 148 A.2d 755, 759 (1959).
As Justice Sutherland in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, 300 U.S. 379, 404, 57 S.Ct. 578, 587, 81 L.Ed. 703, 715 (1937), aptly noted, “[t]he judicial function is that of interpretation; it does not include the power of amendment under the guise of interpretation .” Justice Flanders, writing along similar lines some time ago in his dissent in Kaya v. Partington, 681 A.2d 256 (R.I.1996), observed what I believe bears repetition in this case. He said:
“[T]he reality is, when, as here, a statute is silent on the subject at issue, we judges have absolutely no clue about what result the Legislature would have intended had it ever considered the question presented, especially when we depart from the text of a statute and attempt to find some hidden legislative design or intent that answers a problem not resolved by what the Legislature actually said.” Id. at 264.
He further explained:
“ ‘For purposes of judicial enforcement, the ‘policy’ of a statute should be drawn out of its terms, as nourished by their proper environment, and not, like nitrogen, out of the air.’ *** Our goal is to construe the statute as it is written and *1186not to divine sound public policy out of legislative silence, references to imagined legislative intentions, or our own predilections. As Justice Frankfurter once warned, ‘The search for significance in the silence of [the Legislature] is too often the pursuit of a mirage. We must be wary against interpolating our notions of policy in the interstices of legislative provisions.’
“The reason to be on guard is that when legislative silence is confronted, the temptation is omnipresent for *** the court to intrude its own preferred policies into the law under the euphemistic banner of ‘filling in a legislative gap’ or ‘interstitial’ lawmaking.” Kayo, 681 A.2d at 267-68.
Here, it is beyond dispute that § 31-27-1 and § 31-27-2.2 are “legislatively silent” about whether a defendant in a felony prosecution pursuant to those statutes may refuse to consent to a chemical testing request — or in the case of a refusal— whether that test can be compelled by a judicially authorized search warrant. Accordingly, in the absence of any such prohibiting language in § 31-27-1 and § 31-27-2.2, I believe that, pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant, the state should be permitted to take a breath, blood or urine sample for purposes of chemical testing when a defendant, who is charged with a violation of either of those felony statutes, refuses to comply with a request for the taking and testing thereof.
Justice Lederberg concurs with me in the above and we would respond in the negative to Certified Question Two.
Ill
Certified Question 3
“If R.I.G.L. § 31-27-2.1 does preclude law enforcement from obtaining a search warrant, is this an unconstitutional limitation on the judicial authority to issue search warrants as provided in Article 5 of the Rhode Island Constitution and Rhode Island General Laws 12-5-1?”
In light of my responses proffered to Certified Questions One and Two, any response to question three becomes unnecessary. However, because of the response proffered by the majority concerning G.L. 1956 §§ 12-5-1 and 12-5-2,1 would simply point out that until the United States Supreme Court reverses its holding in Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 16 L.Ed.2d 908 (1966), and until this Court reverses its holding in State v. Locke, 418 A.2d 843 (R.I.1980), a search warrant to seize a sample of a defendant’s breath, blood or urine still is lawfully permitted pursuant to § 12-5-2, where probable cause exists. Section 12-5-2 permits the seizure of any property that is used “in violation of law, or as a means of committing a violation of law; or *** [w]hich is evidence of the commission of a crime.” Section 12 — 5—2(3)(4).
I do not agree with the majority’s general statement that blood itself is not property and thus not evidence of the commission of a crime. Blood itself can, in many instances, be evidence of the commission of a crime. In the real world, which certainly includes the State of Rhode Island, a bottle of liquor is property. It is property that can be the subject of larceny or embezzlement and is even taxed as property. Likewise, a cache of cocaine in someone’s pocket, car, or dwelling also is considered to be property. The fact that the liquor or drugs are ingested and used by someone in violation of law does not transform that property into non-property.
The majority, however, advances the problematic contention that because they are “not satisfied that one’s bodily fluid is property” or “evidence of the commission of a crime” it cannot be seized pursuant to § 12-5-2. What that contention ignores, however, is that it is not the blood that is the evidence being sought by the search warrant, but instead the amount of alcohol or cocaine that is contained in, and is foreign property in the blood. That alcohol and that cocaine was “property” when it went into the defendant’s blood stream, and it is still property when later detected, *1187isolated and identified by chemical analysis. The bodily fluid or blood is not the evidence sought by the search warrant, it is instead the alcohol and illegal cocaine that is contained in the blood and which constitutes evidence of a defendant’s commission of the crime of driving-under-the-influence. Accordingly, § 12-5-2 permits it to be seized from wherever that incriminating evidence reasonably can be found.
IV
Conclusion
For the reasons above set out, Justice Lederberg and I would respond to Certified Questions One and Two m the negative. Because of the nature of our response to those questions, we need not respond to Certified Question Three, but our response to that question reasonably might be indicated from our brief discussion relating to that question.

. In July, 2000, the Legislature amended § 31-27-2. Subsection (b)(1) now reads:
"Any person charged under subsection (a) of this section whose blood alcohol concentration is eight one-hundredths of one *1177percent (.08%) or more by weight as shown by a chemical analysis of a blood, breath, or urine sample shall be guilty of violating subsection (a) of this section.” P.L.2000, ch. 264.

. In State v. Robarge, 35 Conn.Supp. 511, 391 A.2d 184, 185 (App.Ct.1977), the Connecticut Appellate Court was confronted with the same prior consent issue under statutes almost identical to ours. The court there, correctly in my opinion, concluded that the failure to meet the statutory conditions for consent necessary for the admissibility of test samples in prosecutions under Connecticut General Statutes Sec. 14-227a(b) (operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs) did not bar admission of blood sample test results in a prosecution under Sec. 53a-58a (negligent homicide with a motor vehicle). The court reasoned that to conclude otherwise would be wholly unsound in view of the clear language in Sec. 14-227a(b), applying the consent requirement only to violations of Sec. 14-227a(a), the general driving-under-the-influence statute. Id. The court there said:
“The claim of the defendant that the failure to meet the requirements of § 14-227a(b) rendered the blood test results inadmissible is wholly unsound in view of the introductory clause, which reads ‘[i]n any criminal prosecution for a violation of subsection (a) of this section ***.' It is as clear as words can make it that the requirements of subsection (b) pertain only to prosecutions for the operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs in violation of § 14-227a(a). The defendant’s elaborate argument that the law should be otherwise should more appropriately be addressed to the legislature.” Robarge, 391 A.2d at 185.
Later that year, the Connecticut Supreme Court rejected the argument of a defendant charged with misconduct with a motor vehicle where he asserted that his blood sample should have been excluded because the taking and testing of the sample did not meet the consent requirements outlined in § 14— 227a(b). State v. Singleton, 174 Conn. 112, 384 A.2d 334, 336 (1977), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 947, 99 S.Ct. 1425, 59 L.Ed.2d 635 (1979). That court squarely held that "[b]y its express terms, the procedural [consent] requirements of [§ 14-227a(b) ] apply to any criminal prosecution for a violation of § 14-227a(a) — the offense of operating a motor, vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs or both” and not to other vehicular violations such as the one with which defendant was charged. Id.

. Indeed, the New Hampshire Supreme Court has held that a three-year license suspension could not be considered "punishment” sufficient to invoke a double jeopardy application. State v. Liakos, 142 N.H. 726, 709 A.2d 187, 191 (1998).

. Noscitur a sociis is defined as "[a] canon of construction holding that the meaning of an unclear word or phrase should be determined by the words immediately surrounding it.” Blacks Law Dictionary 1084 (7th ed.1999). Its use is somewhat paradoxical because they contend there is nothing unclear in § 31-27-2.2.

. “As chemical testing has evolved into a much relied on prosecution tool, 'implied consent’ laws have likewise evolved to defeat the drunk driver's inclination to refuse to consent to such testing. Implied consent laws encourage submission to chemical testing by making automatic license suspension the cost of refusing to be tested.” 1 Essen-Erwin, Defense of Drunk Driving Cases, § 4.01 at 4-5 (1998).

. The majority, in support of their responses to the certified questions in this proceeding, have cited to several case holdings from other jurisdictions. Those case holdings interpret only a particular statute in a particular state providing for implied consent chemical testing procedures. The statutes that were interpreted in those cases, however, are totally inapposite from G.L.1956 § 31-27-2 and § 31-27-2.1, our Rhode Island implied consent statutes.
For example, in State v. Bellino, 390 A.2d 1014 (Me.1978), cited in the majority opinion, the implied consent statute at issue in Maine provided for its provisions to be applicable in all criminal prosecutions for “violation of any of the provisions " in that state’s motor vehicle code. Id. at 1023. The New Hampshire statute construed in State v. Berry, 121 N.H. 324, 428 A.2d 1250 (1981), also cited by the majority, specifically provided for its implied consent provisions to be applicable in “any offense arising out of acts alleged to have been committed while *** driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated.” Id. at 1251. (Emphasis added.) Those particular implied consent statutory provisions, like the statutes at issue in each of the other cases cited in the majority opinion, are totally different from each other and also completely different and distinguishable from our Rhode Island statute. The plain language of § 31-27-2 specifically: makes chemical testing procedures applicable only in "any criminal prosecution for a violation of subsection (a)” (see § 31-27-2(c)); pertains only to misdemeanor driving-under-the-influence violations {see § 31-27-2(b)(2)); provides that the chemical testing procedure set out in § 31-27-2 pertains only to "any person charged under subsection (a)” {see § 31 — 27—2(b)(1)).
To realize the uniqueness of our Rhode Island statute, one need only to review the comprehensive analysis of the various implied consent statutes from each of the fifty states that is provided in the statutory appendix section in Volume 4 of the treatise by Essen-Erwin, Defense of Drunk Driving Cases (2000). That statutory review discloses that some states, such as Arizona, have implied consent statutes that are made applicable in any offense arising out of acts alleged to be in violation of the Motor Vehicle Code. In those states, if a defendant refuses to consent to chemical testing, no tests can be undertaken except pursuant to a search warrant. That statutory review also discloses that in some other states, implied consent provisions are by specific statutory mandate made applicable in all motor vehicle code violation prosecutions in which liquor or drugs are alleged to be involved. In yet others states, the implied consent statutes are restricted to misdemeanor prosecutions only, but again, one must be careful to note that in Maryland, for example (cited by the majority), the crimes of "manslaughter by motor vehicle” and "homicide by motor vehicle” are *1185deemed misdemeanors. See Loscomh v. State, 45 Md.App. 598, 416 A.2d 1276 (1980). Further, it should be noted that many states, following the Uniform Vehicle Code, have statutes providing that their implied consent provisions are not applicable in under the influence felony death and serious injury prosecutions, and in those instances, chemical testing procedures can be compelled by the arresting officials. See, e.g., Vennont Statutes Ann. title 23, ch. 13, §§ 1201(c) and 1202(f) (1999).
The conclusion that one must inevitably draw after reviewing the various implied consent statutes enacted by each of the fifty states is that generalizations are virtually impossible to arrive at because each state statute has its own unique virtues and faults. See generally Annotation, Vitauts M. Gulbis, Admissibility in Criminal Case of Blood-Alcohol Test Where Blood was Taken Despite Defendant’s Objection or Refusal to Submit to Test, 14 A.L.R.4th 690 (1982). Our Rhode Island statute therefore must be interpreted as written, and applied as intended by the Legislature, namely to assist in the prosecution of alcohol- and drug-impaired motor vehicle operators, and not as a statutory shield to protect them from prosecution.