Upon reading the transcript from the Sandoval trial, I became interested in how defense attournys work. While Googling this, I came across this article that explains how to protect yourself when pulled over for drunk driving (which is pretty common among college kids, which is why I chose it!) I'm not saying I'm defending drunk driving, but I am trying to say that there are ways that we can protect ourselves from the system, and to make sure that people who get pulled over for it are being treated fairly. You can do this by contacting a defense attourny.
Within the article, there are other links that you can click on that provide further information behind this issue.
I found this a very interesting topic because OWI's seem to be a very common offense for college aged students. This brought me to thinking about how there have been two cases I know about in my hometown area that two 18 year old boys both were caught driving home drunk and when they blew, they blew over the legal limit, however, before they blew again they waiting until their lawyers arrived...this allowing more time for the alcohol to get out of their systems. Once they blew again they were under the OWI limit and were only given a no tolerance which decreased the seriousness of the arrest and the penalty for losing their license. They only lose it for 60 days... pretty big difference from an OWI. I have a link to Iowa's OWI laws and for the no tolerance.
http://www.iowadot.gov/owi.htm
Before reading this, I never even thought about your ability to ask for an attorney before you were checked for your blood alcohol content. I found the two cases in the previous comment interesting. It makes me wonder if the boys thought about asking for an attorney to buy them time, or if the lessened consequence just came as a coincidence?
Either way, the boys lucked out. I'm guessing that in a lot of cases, when people get OWIs, they never even thought about asking for an attorney before blowing. This may be because they were obviously not thinking straight due to the alcohol, or simply because people have no idea they are entitled to ask for an attorney. I'm not sure how many people known about this, but I think that if the knowledge became more widespread, people who otherwise should be getting hefty charges are not given the punishment they deserve. I personally don't think drunk driving should be taken lightly, so this loophole kind of stinks!