Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court handed down a ruling that will make it more difficult for police officers to gather blood-alcohol data on drunk driving suspects. Under the high court's verdict, Missouri police officers will be required to obtain search warrants before ordering blood tests on DWI suspects who refuse to submit to Breathalyzer or other blood-alcohol tests.

The high court ruling stemmed from a 2010 traffic stop for suspected drunk driving in Missouri. When the suspect in that case refused to take a breath test, the arresting officer took him to a nearby hospital and ordered a blood test without a warrant. The trial court judge suppressed the evidence obtained from that blood test, and the county prosecutor filed an appeal.

But the Supreme Court sided with the defendant, stating that there must be "exigent circumstances under which the time needed to obtain a warrant would endanger life, allow a suspect to escape or risk the destruction of evidence."

In addition, the court distinguished the Missouri DWI case from an earlier exception to the warrant rule that was allowed by the Supreme Court of the United States. In that case, the arresting officer had to investigate a separate accident before completing the investigation into the alleged DWI. To obtain a warrant would have delayed the blood test, the court ruled, so in that and similar situations warrants were not necessary.

But since there were no accidents or other extenuating circumstances in the arrest at issue, the officer should have taken the time to get a search warrant, the court ruled.

The prosecutor says that he plans to appeal this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. We will continue to update our criminal defense blog with any new developments.

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Mo. court rejects warrantless DWI blood test," Jan. 17, 2012