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Minnesota Supreme Court Rejects DUI Challenges Based On Buggy Software

Posted by Soulskill on from the technology-always-works-perfectly dept.

bzzfzz writes "In a case with parallels to the Diebold Voting Machine fiasco, Minnesota's Supreme Court upheld the reliability of the Intoxilyzer 5000EN breath testing machine on a narrow 4-3 vote. Source code analysis during the six-year legal battle revealed a number of bugs that could potentially affect test results. Several thousand DUI cases that were waiting on the results of this appeal will now proceed. The ruling is one in a series of DUI-related court victories for police and prosecutors. Other recent cases upheld a conviction of a person with no evidence that the vehicle had been driven and convictions based solely on urine samples that may only show impairment hours before driving. The Intoxilyzer 5000EN is now considered obsolete, and replacement devices are being rolled out, with the last jurisdictions in the state scheduled to retire their 5000ENs by the end of the year."

2 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Minnesota, eh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And to top it all off, our food is bland, and a kid can't even take a porn star to the prom without an uproar. This state is whack.

  2. Buggy software by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 3, Funny

    Who knew they still made software for buggies?