Melissa Helton entered a conditional guilty plea to wanton murder and DUI charges that resulted from an investigation which involved a blood test when she was unconscious in a hospital.
Police did not have a warrant to take Helton’s blood in the hospital that day. Helton appealed her DUI plea to argue that the practice of taking her blood while unconscious and without a warrant violated legal protections. She additionally argued that, when a suspect is unconscious, using the implied consent statute in order to require a blood test is unconstitutional in terms of unreasonable search & seizure protections.
Read more on DUIAttorney.com. The full text of the court’s decision can be located in court documents (pdf).