Following a bench trial, John Cletus Williams was convicted of driving under the influence of drugs “DUI”, OCGA § 40-6-391 a 2, and failure to maintain lane, OCGA § 40-6-48 1.1 He had moved unsuccessfully to suppress the results of a state-administered blood test2 on the basis that the test, obtained without a search warrant, violated his rights under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section I, Paragraph XIII of the Georgia Constitution.3 His challenge is that Georgia’s implied consent statute, OCGA § 40-5-55,4 is unconstitutional as applied in his case because consent obtained solely under the statute does not amount to voluntary consent for purposes of the Fourth Amendment and the related provision of the State Constitution.5 For the reasons which follow, we vacate the judgments of the state court and remand the case to that court for reconsideration of Williams’s motion to suppress and any consequent proceedings.
The transcript of the hearing of the motion to suppress and the immediately following bench trial reveal the following facts, which were either stipulated at trial or are not in dispute. On September 22, 2012, Williams was arrested by an officer of the Gwinnett County Police Department and charged with DUI and failure to maintain lane; the officer had “reasonable articulable suspicion” to stop Williams and probable cause to arrest him. Williams was placed in custody but was not advised of his Miranda6 rights. The officer read Williams the age-appropriate statutory implied consent notice7 and pursuant to it requested that Williams submit to blood and urine tests. The officer told Williams that it was “a yes or no question,” and Williams verbally responded “yes.” There was no other conversation about consent for the testing, i.e., the officer did not ask Williams “if Williams was willing to freely and voluntarily give a test.” The officer “read Williams the implied consent and that was pretty much the end of it.” It “was an ordinary DUI,” there “were no exigent circumstances,” and no search warrant was obtained. Williams was taken to a medical center where blood and urine samples were taken for the purpose of his criminal prosecution.
