MA- The Supreme Judicial Court claims a technician's records will suffice in Breathalyzer cases.

The state’s highest court ruled yesterday that prosecutors in drunken driving cases do not have to call a technician to testify that the breath-analysis device used by police worked properly.

The Supreme Judicial Court rejected arguments by a woman convicted of drunken driving in Greenfield that the annual certification of the machine and accompanying records constituted testimony from a witness and thus required that the defense be given a chance to cross-examine the person who had prepared them.

The Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution says people have a right to cross-examine the witnesses against them.

The Massachusetts court said instead that the records were “business records’’ primarily intended “to guarantee, internally, as a matter of course, and, when necessary, in court, the accuracy and standardization of all breathalyzer testing across the various police departments of the Commonwealth.’’


Linl:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/05/25/records_suffice_for_breath_evidence_in_dui_court_says/