Law’s constitutionality focus of Williams case

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

District Judge Mark Gibbons is expected to decide Wednesday whether a new law being used in the Jessica Williams case is constitutional.

Gibbons spent most of Monday afternoon listening to two toxicology experts give opposing views on whether marijuana's active ingredients can impair one's ability to drive.

Williams, 21, is accused in the deaths of six teenagers killed March 19 as they were picking up trash along Interstate 15.

Prosecutors believe Williams passed out at the wheel as a result of smoking marijuana and taking the drug Ecstasy, and they were able to convince a grand jury to indict her on a relatively new law involving prohibited substances.

Under the law, anyone with certain amounts of particular street drugs in his or her system is automatically presumed to be driving under the influence of that drug.

In the Williams case, blood tests taken an hour after the accident showed that for each milliliter of her blood, she had 5.5 nanograms of marijuana in her system. Under the new law, anyone with 2 nanograms of marijuana per milliliter of blood is presumed to be under the influence of the drug.

Williams' attorney, John Watkins, contends his client merely fell asleep. He believes the real blame for the accident should fall on the shoulders of Clark County because the children were performing community service as punishment for minor legal infractions.

On Monday, Watkins' expert toxicologist, Bryan Finkle, told a crowded courtroom that there is no scientific evidence that shows a correlation between impairment and marijuana's ingredients.

Unlike alcohol, one can't predict how much marijuana will show up in any particular person's system, Finkle said. Nor can anyone tell by someone's blood tests when the person smoked the marijuana or how much.

However, Ray Kelly, a toxicologist who testified on behalf of prosecutors Gary Booker and Bruce Nelson, said some tests indicate marijuana can impair drivers.

In flight simulator tests, airplane pilots who thought they were fine 24 hours after smoking marijuana were actually still impaired, Kelly said.

Gibbons also heard Monday from state Sen. Jon Porter, who helped draft the law after a Las Vegas family who lost their loved one to a drugged driver approached him for help.

Porter said he was told eight or nine other states have similar measures and those that have been challenged have been upheld by those states' high courts.

Gibbons said he will take the next couple of days to study the many studies submitted by the toxicologists. On Wednesday, he will hear arguments from the defense and prosecution lawyers before making a decision.