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Constitutional liberties
The 4th amendment explained
The 4th amendment explained
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The police barge into Dollree Mapp’s home, on May 23rd, 1957, without a warrant, as they believed she was living with a suspected bomber. During their search, no suspect was found, however they did find a trunk of obscene pictures. Mapp was arrested and then convicted in the ohio courts, for possession of those obscene materials. During her trial, the state said that even if the search was unreasonably, it not not prevent them for using unconstitutionally seized evidence, so Mapp was sent to jail. Mapp took her appeal to the United States Supreme Court arguing that her 4th amendment right were violated. The U.S supreme court ruled in a 5-3 vote in favor of Mapp, ruling that unlawfully seized evidence can not be used in courts. They considered
this to be an illegal search and seizure. The court came to this conclusion based on that the 4th amendment applied to both the state and federal government, then they should enforce the exclusionary rule in both courts. This court case has provided the foundation for future 4th amendment court cases, especially with the change of technology. The exclusionary rules that state: if the police violate your constitutional rights in order to obtain evidence, they cannot use that evidence against you in a court of law, was now going to be applied to the states. Today, the exclusionary rules are crucial as it protects people from improper searches.
In this case, the Supreme Court decision in reversing the decision of the trail court. Although the suspects were conducting an illegal crime, the officers were reckless in the procedures in collecting the evidence. In this case, if there was a report or call concerning the drug activities in the apartment, being that the Police Department was conducting a the drug sting, it would have justified the reasoning behind the officers kicking the door in and securing suspects and evidence.
This case is about Scott Randolph, who’s home was searched without a warrant. Due to this “corrupted” search, police ended up finding cocaine in his home. As a matter of fact both Randolph and his wife Janet Randolph were present during the search, it’s stated that Randolph’s wife gave permission to search the house. However Randolph denied to give that consistent, but police believed that the wife’s permission was all they needed. After the encounter with the drugs, Randolph was arrested for drug possession. This case was taken to trail and both the appellate court and Georgie Supreme court believed that the search of Randolph's home was unconstitutional.
The court for this case found that the search and seizure of the stereo violated the fourth and fourteenth Amendments. The Decision was 6 votes for Hicks and 3 votes against.
Hicks is like the search of Justin Meyers home conducted by police in the fictional case in the text book. In both searches police were in the defendant’s homes and were searching for specific items, and during that search items were found that implicated the defendants in other crimes. There are several differences between the two cases. First, the severity of the crimes. Hicks’s case involved the theft of stereo equipment, while Myers case involved murder. Second, the search of Hicks home did not include a search warrant, and in Meyers case the police did have a search warrant. In Myers case, police had a lawful search warrant to search for drugs and drug paraphernalia. During that search police located a bloody rag, which was sent for testing. The results of this test revealed the blood belonged to a murder victim, implicating Myers for suspicion of murder. Although the police did have a search warrant, the warrant only listed drugs, and paraphernalia. This arises several questions. First where was the bloody rag found? Second, did the police have probable cause that Meyers was under suspicion of murder? Or was it simply a case of reasonable suspicion? In my opinion the results of the tests performed on the bloody rag found in Meyers case should not be admissible since Myers was not under suspicion of murder, and the bloody rag was not included in the lawful search warrant. The search is not considered legal, and not covered under the plain site doctrine. Myer’s fourth amendment protection against illegal search and seizure was violated by testing the bloody
On May 23rd 1957, three police officers representing Cleveland Ohio came to the door of Miss Mapp’s residence with the suspicion of a bombing suspect hiding out in her home. Miss Mapp and her daughter lived in a two family two story home. Upon their arrival at the house the police knocked on the door and demanded entrance from Miss Mapp. However Miss Mapp didn’t open the door and instead asked them to provide a search warrant after she called her attorney. The officers advised their headquarters of the situation and established surveillance of the home over the next few hours. The officers once again sought entrance three hours later when they forced open one of the doors to the home and went inside. It was around this time that miss mapp’s attorney arrived and witnessed the police officers enter the home. In their continued defiance of the law they did not allow Miss Mapp to see her attorney. At one point when the officers entered the hall Miss Mapp stopped them and demanded to see their search warrant. One officer held up a slip of paper claiming it to be a search warrant and Miss Mapp immediately grabbed it and stuck it in her bra. The officers wrestled Mapp to the ground and made her relinquish the paper through a struggle. The police then handcuffed her because she was being “belligerent”. The officers then escorted her upstairs and began searching through her drawers and belongings, even though they were looking for a bombing suspect. The police also looked at her photo albums and some of her personal papers. The search spread throughout the house. It’s possible that during this time they found who they believed was the bomber Virgil Ogletree inside the home. He said that he was there delivering laundry as he owned a dry cle...
They presented Mapp’s with a fabricated search warrant, which they refused to let her keep for her attorney. They continued to bombard their way into Mapp’s home in pursuit of the bombing suspect. The law enforcement officers did not find the bombing suspect, but did find a trunk full of obscene photos in Mapp’s basement (Mapp v. Ohio (1961)). Mapp’s was arrested, charged, and convicted by the Cuyahoga County Ohio Court of possessing lewd, lascivious, or obscene books, pictures, and photographs even though the search and seizure were unlawful. Mapp’s initially appealed her conviction based on violations of her First Amendment rights of freedom of expression because it was her right to have those obscene photos in her possession.
In this position paper I have chosen Bloodsworth v. State ~ 76 Md.App. 23, 543 A.2d 382 case to discuss on whether or not the forensic evidence that was submitted for this case should have been admissible or not. To understand whether or not the evidence should be admissible or not we first have to know what the case is about.
Terry v. Ohio was in 1968 it had a decision by the United States Supreme Court which held that the fourth amendment prohibition on the unreasonable search and seizures is not violated when a police officer stops a suspect on the streets and frisks him or her without probable cause to arrest, if the police officer had a reasonable suspicion of that person had commit a crime in which he can be belief that the person may have a weapons that can be dangerous to a police officer.
The fourth amendment protects people against unreasonable searches and seizures. The police had evidence that DLK was growing marijuana in his house, so they used a thermal imager and found a significant amount of heat. The police took this evidence to a judge who gave them a warrant to search inside DLK’s house for the marijuana and when they did search his house the police found the plants and arrested DLK. The controversy surrounding this case is whether or not it was constitutional for the police to use the thermal imager of DLK’s house without a search warrant. The government did not need a warrant to use a thermal imager on the outside of DLK’s house because once the heat left DLK’s house it was out in public domain, the thermal imager could not see any details within DLK’s house, and the police already had evidence to expect DLK was growing the marijuana plants in his house.
The Supreme Court had to decide on the question of, does random drug testing of high school athletes violate the reasonable search and seizure clause of the Fourth Amendment? According to the Fourth Amendment, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Redding became a starting case against unconstitutional searches of students where a girl had her backpack searched in the assistant principal 's office. After the official searched her bag, the school nurse’s office was her next destination, so the nurse and the administrative assistant could search her clothes and instructed her to shake out the elastic of her bra and underwear (Carpenter 86-87). The tragic part about this case is that it is not the first or final time a similar event has occurred. In the case of Jane Doe, “...or so she was called in this case…”, a student of a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas filed a case against her school (Dowling-Sendor 46). Dowling-Sendor tells of how the school regularly conducted searches of book bags and purses, and police officials would take any contraband found. Then any items found would become evidence for a prosecution (46). When school officials searched Jane’s bag, they recovered a container full of Marijuana, and its purpose was to convict Jane Doe on a drug misdemeanor charge. After being charged with this, Jane appealed to the 8th circuit because the District Court first dismissed her case. The court ruled in her favor in a two to one decision, claiming the search caused a violation of her rights. She had every reason to win because school officials search students at this school on a regular basis, and it is
From a trial strategy point of view, you always start with the piece(s) of evidence you believe are most damaging to the client's case and work backwards looking for an exploitable flaw in the search and seizure procedure that would make that or those item(s) inadmissible. The further back in the series of events you can argue a fatal flaw, the more likely that the evidence and any additional materials which flowed from that particular item of evidence will be excluded. This is the practical analysis of all the times we see or hear of law enforcement arguing that there was some technical item which drew their attention and suspicion and justifies their hunch that criminal activity is afoot.
In the case of Katz v. The United States the petitioner Mr. Charles Katz was arrested in 1976 for an eight counts of transmission of wagering information from Los Angeles to bookies in both Boston and Miami. In order to gain evidence the FBI placed the man in question under surveillance, later in the investigation after determining the schedule and location in which Katz would consistently place his calls, the investigators attached an electronic listening device on the outside of the public phone booth in order to record his conversations. After six days of monitoring the booth and with sufficient evidence collected, the FBI had Charles placed under arrest and eventually processed through the lower courts. Once charged for his crimes the argument of whether the evidence, the recordings, provided had in fact been obtained illegally by FBI. As the listening device used to eavesdrop had been placed what would be considered to be a “private” area without a warrant permitting there intrusion and subsequent “search and seizure” of evidence ...
...’ testimony at trial. This rule has played a big role in the American system like in the case of Mapp V. Ohio. Ohio police officers had gone to a home of a women to ask her question about a recent bombing and requested to search her house. When she denied them access, they arrested her and searched her house which led them to find allegedly obscene books, pictures, and photographs.
A Doll’s House, the title belonging to one of the most well known plays in the world of literature. As the name suggests, this famous play written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879 discusses the dilemmas of a seemingly perfect 19th century family. The title serves as a significant symbol and proposal of the message that Ibsen intended to convey through the play. The title highlights two important aspects of the play, a doll and a house. The doll and house symbolize the main character Nora Helmer, and the house in which she lives in with her husband, Torvald Helmer. It is clear that Ibsen named his play A Doll’s House because of the relationship between Nora and Torvald, the perfection of the house in which they live, and the constant manipulation that