The Statev.Jessica Lynne Reid
The State appealed an order suppressing the result of a blood test obtained after a Georgia trooper stopped Jessica Reid. The trial court treated the affirmative response to the implied-consent request as insufficient to establish voluntary consent without additional proof. The Court of Appeals reversed. Relying on Georgia precedent, the court rejected both a rule that an affirmative response is automatically voluntary and a contrary rule requiring the State always to prove more than the response itself. An affirmative answer to the statutory question may establish actual consent when the record contains no reason to believe the answer was involuntary. Because nothing in the record suggested that Reid’s response was coerced or otherwise involuntary, the trial court erred by suppressing the blood-test result. The case was returned for proceedings consistent with the reversal. The chief judge and another judge concurred.
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