DUI – Case Law Wire

American Fork City v. Barbour — Nail-Biting During Baker Observation Period Required Clock Reset, Making Trial Counsel Ineffective for Not Moving to Suppress Breath Test

The Utah Court of Appeals vacated a DUI conviction and remanded for a new trial, holding that trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to move to suppress a breath test after bodycam footage showed the defendant biting his fingernails continuously for over two minutes during the Baker pre-test observation period — a question of first impression establishing that fingernail contact constitutes introduction of a foreign object requiring the Baker clock to restart.

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Lane v. State — Without “Some Evidence” of Post-Driving Drinking, Defense Instruction Not Required

/ July 4, 2026

The Alaska Court of Appeals affirmed Lane’s DUI conviction under AS 28.35.030(a)(2), holding that the post-driving-drinking defense under AS 28.35.030(s) requires “some evidence” of actual post-driving consumption before a trial court must instruct the jury; an eight-minute gap between watercraft operation and a traffic stop, standing alone, did not meet that threshold. The court also called on the Criminal Pattern Jury Instructions Committee to revise the blood-alcohol-level DUI instruction to address its tension with the post-driving-drinking defense statute.