Court Opinion

ID: 9598490
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:09:20.783695+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:41.783236
License: Public Domain

Pope, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially.
I am forced to agree that the plain language of the Act compels this undesirable result. See Ga. L. 1995, p. 1164, § 5. Only the General Assembly can correct it, as it had to correct the language making the new implied consent warning requirements retroactively applicable to all pending cases. See Division 2. Clearly, retroactive application of laws imposing new requirements on arresting officers has a devastating effect on the prosecution of otherwise viable criminal cases. Now that'this situation has arisen twice in the DUI context alone, perhaps the General Assembly will consider making new requirements applicable to all arrests on or after the law is signed, rather than all cases pending at that time.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge McMurray, Presiding Judge Birdsong, Judge Johnson, Judge Blackburn and Judge Smith join in this special concurrence.