ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s Supreme Court has overturned a law that allowed a driver’s refusal to submit to a breath test to be used as evidence in a criminal trial for driving under the influence.
The high court unanimously agreed Monday that the provision violated the Georgia Constitution’s protection against self-incrimination.
The court says Justice Nels S.D. Peterson acknowledged in the opinion that the Supreme Court’s decision could make it more difficult to prosecute DUI offenses.
But Peterson wrote that the right of protection against self-incrimination “does not wax or wane based on the severity of a defendant’s alleged crimes.”
The decision came in a case where a driver challenged an August 2015 DUI arrest in Clarke County