DWI backlog endangers us all

Reasons abound for the backlog of DWI cases because of long-delayed blood-alcohol testing at the state crime lab, but the issue is one of management failure by the state. The sad result is that justice in these critically important cases is being denied.

Drunk driving is a statewide crisis. In 2012, 413 people were killed and 8,471 injured in North Carolina in crashes where alcohol impairment was involved, according to Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.

Judge Patrice Hinnant of Forsyth Superior Court dismissed a felony habitual DWI charge against a Winston-Salem man last month because prosecutors had delayed the case for more than 18 months, the Journal’s Michael Hewlett reported.

“They are not even testing blood anymore because the analysts they did have working there all left,” James McMinn, an assistant public defender who handles DWI cases, told the Journal.

State Crime Lab officials say that testing is being done but that a shortage of analysts has caused a backlog. In addition, a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring analysts to testify in court is taking them away from the lab.

“North Carolina is not willing to pay these highly trained and highly qualified people,” Joseph R. John Sr., the director of the State Crime Lab, told the Journal. They’re leaving for higher-paying jobs in the private sector, he said. The crime lab in Greensboro has one toxicology analyst working and two positions vacant. Those positions should be filled soon, John said. In addition, the state new budget allows for 19 new positions in the crime labs in Raleigh, Greensboro and Asheville, though it can take one to two years to hire and train analysts.

In Forsyth County, 450 DWI cases have come before the county’s new DWI Court, which has helped streamline cases on the local level, and 311 disposed of this year. Of those, 90 involved blood evidence in which no test results were returned, according to Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Shrader, who is the DWI prosecutor. The office continues to try cases without blood evidence.

District Attorney Jim O’Neill has a good idea: Let SBI analysts testify by video, so travel time wouldn’t take away from lab time.

Whatever the reason for the backlog in blood testing, the situation is wholly unacceptable and crime lab officials need to ramp up their efforts to hire and train more analysts. What could be more important than getting drunk drivers off the road?