What is meant by "normal" mental and physical faculties?
The answer to that question is at the heart of most DWI trials. If a person is dead drunk there is no question that he has lost normalcy. However, what if that person is not stumbling drunk but has visible flaws in his physical abilities? In theory, the field tests are supposed to reveal those flaws. The problem with the field tests is that they test for physical abilities not everyone possesses.
Normal mental ability is even more difficult to pinpoint. Any normal person - especially an older person - will vary greatly in mental acuity throughout the day. When placed in stressful situations, such as being accused of committing a crime, a person is likely to be nervous and distracted.
Prosecutors like to tell jurors in a Driving While Intoxicated prosecution that any mental and physical mistake justifies a conviction. However, a good defense attorney will point out that "normal" varies from individual to individual. If the prosecutor is arguing that the person who dropped his foot while standing on one leg is thereby intoxicated, it is her burden to prove that the person is fully able to stand firmly on one leg in all other instances.
At the firm we like to say, "only God knows when someone is not normal; all others are taking an educated guess."
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