Supreme Court of Georgia

Spencer v. State

October 2, 2017

Summary

The court held that the State failed to establish the scientific validity or reliability of correlating a particular HGN score with a numeric blood-alcohol concentration, so the officer's testimony was improperly admitted. Because the testimony was repeatedly emphasized and the remaining evidence of impairment was contested, the error was not harmless. The court therefore reversed Spencer's DUI less-safe conviction and sentence while leaving the other conviction undisturbed.