Crim. Pro. Flashcards
What does the 4th amendment deal with?
Unreasonable search and seizure.
What right has not been held binding on the states?
The right to a grand jury.
What is search and seizure?
Any governmental control or possession over a person or a thing.
What is an arrest?
A governmental seizure taking a person against their will into custody for the purposes of conviction or questioning.
What is a seizure?
Under the totality of the circumstances a reasonable person would not feel free to decline a request or terminate an encounter.
What is required for a legal arrest? 🔀
Probable cause or a warrant.
What is the effect of an invalid arrest?
It has no effect on any subsequent criminal prosecution or conviction.
What are Terry stops?
(1) Police have the authority to briefly detain someone (2) even if they lack probable cause so long as they have (3) reasonable suspicion (4) supported by articulatable facts (5) of criminal activity.
What are articulatable facts?
A hunch is insufficient, there must be specific reasons.
What is the effect of informants?
There must be some facts that are indicia of reliability, most commonly a predicted future outcome.
What must the police do in a Terry stop?
In a diligent and reasonable manner confirm or dispel suspicions.
What is the nature of traffic stops?
(1) A sniff is not a search (2) so long as the time of detainment does not exceed the average time to issue a ticket or warning.
When is a drug sniffing dog impermitted?
Taking a drug sniffing dog onto the area around a house is not allowed.
What is the effect of a mistake of law on search and seizure?
It does not invalidate a search and seizure.
What is the informational roadblock?
A roadblock constructed by police to conduct questioning of people in the area where a crime occured.
What is required for an informational roadblock?
(1) Must stop cars on the basis of neutral, articulable standard and (2) Must be designed to serve purpose closely related to problem pertaining to cars and their mobility.
What is the effect of ulterior motives for stops?
Permitted so long as there is some valid reason for an actual violation of law the ulterior motive is irrelevant.
When is a warrant required?
For a search or seizure.
What are the steps for search & seizure?
(1) Government conduct, (2) standing to object, (3) valid warrant, or (4) exception to warrant.
What is governmental conduct?
(1) Law enforcement, (2) government agents, or (3) personal individuals acting at direction of law enforcement.
What type of law enforcement is not governmental conduct?
Mall security, private security, campus police.
What is standing to object to a discovery request?
A reasonable expectation of privacy.
When is there a reasonable expectation of privacy?
(1) Owned or had right to possess the searched place, (2) place searched was their home, and (3) person is overnight guest.
What is the effect of an illegal search of someone elses property?
No effect especially if abandoned.
How can police acquire geolocational information from cell-sites?
With a search warrant.
What nine areas are there no reasonable right to privacy?
(1) Sound of voice, (2) handwriting style, (3) car paint, (4) bank records, (5) publicly observable car location, (6) open fields, (7) airspace, (8) odors from luggage or car, (9) outside garbage for collection.
What must be the posture of garbage?
It must be on the curb for pickup to be validly searched.
What is required for obtaining warrant?
(1) Probable cause and (2) particularity.
What is sufficient source of probable cause?
(1) A credible informant, (2) given the circumstances.
What is particularity for obtaining a warrant?
Must describe the place to be searched, the items to be seized, and the contraband can be anticipated.
What is the rule for non-suspect third-parties?
So long as there is probable cause a warrant may be issued.
What is necessary for executing a warrant?
(1) Only law enforcement, (2) no third parties unless necessary to identify stolen property, (3) violation of knock and announce rule will not result in suppression of evidence.
What is the effect of a valid search warrant on people who are on the premises at the time it is executed?
Only people named in the warrant may be searched. Unnamed persons may not be searched.
What are the exceptions to search warrants?
(1) Search after a lawful arrest, (2) protective sweeps, (3) contemporaneous in time and place with the arrest.
What is the effect of unconstitutional arrest on searches?
Everything is inadmissible.
What is within the domain of a personal search?
The person and everything within their wingspan they may reach.
What is the Gant rule?
Incidental to an arrest the police may search a passenger compartment in a car if:
(1) Arrestee is unsecured [not cuffed] and may gain access to the vehicle
- OR-
(2) police reasonably believe evidence of arresting offense are there.
What is the effect of finding contraband different from what was suspected?
So long as the search itself is valid the uncovering of any illegal items will be admissible.
What are the rules for technological searches?
(1) Warrantless breath tests permitted, but not blood blood tests, and (2) physical attributes of phone may be searched, but not the data.
What is the automobile exception?
If police have probable cause to believe the vehicle contains fruits, instrumentality, or evidence of a crime, they may search entire vehicle including any containers they have probable cause to search.