Marijuana Policy Project

The I-Team is digging deeper into the strange case of an off-duty N.H.P. trooper accused of being high on marijuana during a fatal accident in June that killed 49-year-old Ying Warren and injured two other people.

Sergeant Edward Lattin will be in court early Thursday. The same attorneys involved in the Jessica Williams case are going to try a unique defense to get him off. She was a young woman convicted of killing six people while she had drugs in her system.

Sergeant Lattin had almost the exact same amount coursing through his veins when he killed a woman back in June.

They are two very different incidents, but they are actually very much the same. One is an N.H.P. Trooper blamed for being high and getting behind the wheel-causing a deadly crash. The other is a woman already in prison. She was also high when she caused a crash that killed six.

"It would appear to me that we have the same situation here. We have a situation where they're marijuana but there's no impairment," said attorney John Watkins.

Watkins says Williams and Lattin had about the same amount of marijuana in their systems during each crash -- about 5.6 nanograms per milliliter of blood.

"I find it astounding that they can measure something that minimal," said attorney Ellen Bezian.

Watkins says it is like having $5 out of a half billion. The lawyers say the numbers would be higher if Lattin had actually smoked marijuana right before the crash.

In this case, it might have been a contact high. "It could have been ingested by inhalation, second hand at rap concert. A Snoop Dogg concert," said Bezian.

The lawyers' defense will point directly to the Williams' case. She was found not guilty of being impaired by the drugs, but was still put in prison because she had the drugs in her system. They say if the drug levels are the same, Lattin should be innocent too.

"It's wrong to have a law that puts people in prison when you're not impaired," said Watkins.

Now the legal fight begins and these separate cases are about to become closer.

The lawyers would not reveal if Lattin had used marijuana before driving. They simply point out the numbers were low. They think he didn't use marijuana before getting behind the wheel.