Quote:
Originally Posted by azoomm
He didn't even testify on his own behalf? So, there's an officer stating they believe blah blah blah. And, you don't even testify that blah blah blah is wrong, what is the court to believe?
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A lot of defendants don't testify on their own behalf for a few reasons. First a lot of defendants are guilty. While I doubt many of them care about committing perjury their attorneys sure do. If an attorney "knowingly" puts someone on the stand who commits perjury they can get in a buttload of trouble including loosing their license to practice. Another reason is to keep their dipshit client from saying something stupid while being cross examined by the prosecutor. The prosecution cannot call a defendant to the stand as a witness. They only get to question them in court if the defendant decides to take the stand. If they don't testify on their own behalf the prosecution doesn't get the chance to try and get them to say something stupid.
Either way I think the assumption of guilt for some of these DUI cases has gotten out of hand. The prosecution should still have to prove more than the facts that a defendant was drunk and somewhere near a car for which they had the keys.