Court Opinion

ID: 9575551
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:14:42.57588+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:48:22.546576
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
dissenting.
1. The court holds that the evidence was sufficient “to support a conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol.” But the trial court had directed a verdict of “not guilty” as to driving under the influence of alcohol, and the jury returned such a verdict. Therefore, it could not also find defendant guilty of driving under the combined influence of alcohol and drugs, OCGA § 40-6-391 (a) (3), by finding beyond a-reasonable doubt that defendant was guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol.
*6312. The conviction of driving under the combined influence requires consideration of the issue of the foundational proof of the scientific validity of the tests depended on by the officer in giving his opinions.
When the police officer testified, defendant objected to the admission of the field evaluations as a basis for his opinion and was overruled. No evidence was submitted to show that the officer’s observations of defendant’s eye reactions were valid indications of drug usage. This conclusion of the officer was, according to the record, based only on the officer’s having learned these techniques from what he stated was a state-certified DUI detection and apprehension school and police-sponsored classes.
He simply testified that the jerking of the eye would indicate “[s]omeone being under the influence of either alcohol or drugs.” He testified that the dilation of the pupil indicated “possible drug usage” and that the repeated dilation and contraction “indicates drug usage.”
The officer was not able to cite scientific authority for the use or reliability of these tests. In Harper v. State, 249 Ga. 519, 525 (1) (292 SE2d 389) (1982), the Supreme Court determined “that it is proper for the trial judge to decide whether the procedure or technique in question has reached a scientific stage of verifiable certainty, or in the words of Professor Irving Younger, whether the procedure ‘rests upon the laws of nature.’ The trial court may make this determination from evidence presented to it at trial by the parties; in this regard expert testimony may be of value. Or the trial court may base its determination on exhibits, treatises or the rationale of cases in other jurisdictions. . . . The significant point is that the trial court makes this determination based on the evidence available to him rather than by simply calculating the consensus in the scientific community. Once a procedure has been recognized in a substantial number of courts, a trial judge may judicially notice, without receiving evidence, that the procedure has been established with verifiable certainty, or that it rests upon the laws of nature.” This was recently applied in Caldwell v. State, 260 Ga. 278 (393 SE2d 436) (1990).
The method must have reached a “scientific stage of verifiable certainty.” Walraven v. State, 255 Ga. 276, 280 (5) (336 SE2d 798) (1985). Evidence, or exhibits, or treatises, or the rationale of cases in other jurisdictions was never presented to the court charged with making a determination. Williams v. State, 251 Ga. 749 (1) (312 SE2d 40) (1983); Bostic v. State, 173 Ga. App. 494, 495 (2) (326 SE2d 849) (1985). In response to the motion for new trial, the State conceded this to be true. On the other hand, this court has the benefit of cases from other jurisdictions belatedly cited to us by the State. Nevertheless, even if we were authorized to originally appraise the validity of *632the tests, which we are not, the cases are at best inconclusive as to a general recognition of the scientific verification of the tests.
Decided July 16, 1990
Rehearing denied July 31, 1990.
Davis, Sissel & Williams, Warren P. Davis, for appellant.
Ralph T. Bowden, Jr., Solicitor, N. Jackson Cotney, Jr., Cliff Howard, Assistant Solicitors, for appellee.
The officer was taught how to administer the “hippus” and “HGN” tests and what conclusions he could draw from the results but he gave no basis to establish that they were valid measurements of the influence of drugs on the person’s behavior. This was assumed. The scientific validity of the tests remained unverified, so the trial court should not have allowed the officer’s opinion insofar as he relied upon the tests. Expert testimony or other evidence “must enable the court to determine the reliability of [the test] generally from a scientific basis, as well as specifically under the circumstances of the statement “in [the] case.” Godfrey v. State, 258 Ga. 28, 29 (365 SE2d 93) (1988); Walraven, supra. See Agnor’s Georgia Evidence, § 10-8; Daniel’s Handbook on Criminal Evidence, § 1-49. Absent the tainted tests, the evidence was not overwhelming as to defendant’s guilt and it was not highly probable that the error did not contribute to the judgment. Johnson v. State, 238 Ga. 59, 61 (230 SE2d 869) (1976). Compare Ross v. State, 192 Ga. App. 850 (1) (386 SE2d 721) (1989).
The judgment should be reversed, as defendant is entitled to a new trial.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Carley and Judge Sognier join in this dissent.