Crim Pro

Question 1

Curtilage

Answer 1

In determining whether the area is protected, the following four-factor test applies:

i) The proximity of the area to the home;
ii) Whether the area is included within an enclosure surrounding the home;
iii) The nature of the uses to which the area is put; and
iv) The steps taken by the resident to protect the area from observation by passersby.

Question 2

Standing

Answer 2

Defendant must assert own 4th Amendment right.

E.g., no standing to challenge search of friend’s home.

But, e.g., can challenge stop of car where D is passenger.

Also, standing to challenge search of rental care.

Question 3

Seizure

Answer 3

TEST: Would a reasonable innocent person in D’s position believe he was free to leave?

Must be intentional use or show of authority.

Question 4

Arrest Warrant

Answer 4

Issued by detached and neutral magistrate upon finding of PC.

What if warrant fails to satisfy PC requirement? OK if officer independently has PC.

Entry: OK in arrestee’s home if reason to believe they’re present. But not other person’s home - need search warrant for 3P home.

Question 5

Warrantless Arrests

Answer 5

In home: No, absent exigent circumstances or valid consent.

Otherwise: OK if felony or misdo committed in presence, or PC to believe felony was committed.

Question 6

Rule for Open Fields

Answer 6

No reasonable expectation in open fields, even if fences and “no trespassing” signs.

Question 7

Other’s homes

Answer 7

Overnight guests have standing and REP. Short-term use for illegal business purpose is different though (e.g., bagging cocaine).

Question 8

REP in prison

Answer 8

No REP in cell. Administrators may conduct searches up to and including visual strip searches in the absence of reasonable suspicion.

Question 9

Automobile Rules

Answer 9

Lower REP. RS to stop, PC to search.

Question 10

911 Call for RS

Answer 10

Maybe, if 911 report is sufficiently reliable.

Question 11

Checkpoints

Answer 11

Must be 1.) based on neutral, articulable standards and 2.) its purpose must be closely related to an issue affecting automobiles.

Also, immigration stop, searches for witness.

Question 12

Checkpoints to find witnesses

Answer 12

(i) the checkpoint stop’s primary law enforcement purpose is to elicit evidence to help them apprehend not the vehicle’s occupants but other individuals; (ii) the stop advanced a public concern to a significant degree; and (iii) the police appropriately tailored their checkpoint stops to fit important criminal investigatory needs and to minimally interfere with liberties protected by the Fourth

Question 13

DNA samples

Answer 13

DNA identification of arrestees is a reasonable search that can be considered part of a routine booking procedure. When officers make an arrest supported by probable cause and they bring the suspect to the station to be detained in custody, taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee’s DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under theFourth Amendment.

Question 14

Blood Samples vs. Breath

Answer 14

Except in unusual situations, blood samples require warrants, but breath samples do not. The involuntary, warrantless blood test of a drunken-driving suspect was appropriate when police could reasonably have believed that the delay necessary to obtain a search warrant would likely result in disappearance of the blood-alcohol content evidence, and the test was administered according to accepted medical practices.

The Fourth Amendment mandates that police officers obtain a warrant before a blood sample can be drawn, if they can reasonably do so without significantly undermining the efficacy of the search.

When a driver is unconscious and cannot be given a breath test, the exigent-circumstances doctrine (discussed infra) generally permits a blood test without a warrant.

Question 15

Flyover Search

Answer 15

An inspection conducted from at least 400 feet in the air, whether by an airplane or a helicopter, does not violate a reasonable expectation of privacy and therefore is not a search for the purposes of the Fourth Amendment.

Question 16

Sense-Enhancing Technology

Answer 16

The use of a device or sense-enhancing technology (e.g., a thermal sensing device) that is not in use by the general public to explore the details of a dwelling that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion constitutes a search.

Question 17

Use of dogs

Answer 17

Use of a trained dog to sniff for the presence of drugs is a search if it involves a physical intrusion onto constitutionally protected property.

Question 18

Search warrant requirements

Answer 18

When a search occurs, a warrant serves to protect a person’s privacy interests against unreasonable governmental intrusion. A valid search warrant must be issued by a neutral and detached magistrate based on probable cause, must be supported by oath or affidavit, and must describe the places to be searched and the items to be seized.

Facts supporting probable cause may come from any of the following sources:

i) A police officer’s personal observations;
ii) Information from a reliable, known informant or from an unknown informant that can be independently verified; or
iii) Evidence seized during stops based on reasonable suspicion, evidence discovered in plain view, or evidence obtained during consensual searches.

Question 19

Anticipatory Warrants

Answer 19

Police do not have to believe that contraband is on the premises to be searched at the time the warrant is issued. The probable cause requirement is satisfied when, at the time that the warrant is issued, there is probable cause to believe that the triggering condition will occur and, if that condition does occur, there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place.

Question 20

Knock and Announce

Answer 20

Generally required but for individualized showing of danger to officers or destruction of evidence.

Violations of K&A do not trigger exclusionary rule

Question 21

Detentions During Execution of Search Warrant

Answer 21

in conducting a search for contraband pursuant to a warrant, any occupant of the premises to be searched may be detained in a reasonable manner, which may include the use of handcuffs, for a reasonable time while the search is conducted.

But must be in the immediate vicinity.

Question 22

SITA

Answer 22

can search person and immediate surroundings.

Protective sweet for potential attackers in spaces near place of arrest, in a home.

Extends to “immediately associated” bags/containers

Vehicles: officers must show either (i) that the arrestee is within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search and, as a result, may pose an actual and continuing threat to the officer’s safety or a need to preserve evidence from being tampered with by the arrestee or (ii) that it is reasonable that evidence of the offense of arrest might be found in the vehicle

Question 23

Exigent Circumstances

Answer 23

In determining the existence of exigent circumstances, courts use the “totality of circumstances” test. As a corollary to this doctrine, police may also secure the premises for a reasonable time to enable officers to obtain a warrant when the police have reason to believe that the failure to do so could result in the destruction of evidence.

Can’t create the exigency

Question 24

Hot pursuit

Answer 24

If the police have probable cause to believe that an individual has committed a felony and they are pursuing him to arrest him, then they have the right to enter a private building during the pursuit, to search that building for the person or his weapons while they are present on the premises, and to seize evidence found there, even though the material found is “mere” evidence and neither fruits nor instrumentalities of a crime.

Question 25

Emergency Situations

Answer 25

A search without a warrant is authorized whenever there is a reasonable apprehension that the delay required in obtaining the warrant would result in the immediate danger of evidence destruction or the threatened safety of the officer or the public, or when a suspect is likely to flee before a warrant can be obtained.

Whether a person is in need of aid is judged on the basis of a police officer’s objective reasonable belief that the person needs aid. Aid includes emergency assistance to an injured occupant as well as protection of an occupant from imminent injury. Neither the officer’s subjective motive for searching without a warrant nor the seriousness of the crime the officer was originally investigating are relevant in making this determination.

Question 26

Terry Stops

Answer 26

A stop is justified on the reasonable suspicion, based upon articulable facts, that the detainees are or were involved in criminal activity.

An officer who does not have probable cause to arrest may make a limited search of a person he has lawfully stopped, such as a pat-down of the outer clothing, if he has reasonable suspicion that the person was or is involved in criminal activity and that the frisk is necessary for the preservation of his safety or the safety of others

A Terry stop must be temporary and last no longer than is necessary to effectuate the purpose of the stop. The investigative methods employed should be the least intrusive means reasonably available to verify or dispel the officer’s suspicion in a short time.

Question 27

Terry Stop, Vehicles

Answer 27

Pursuant to a lawful stop of a vehicle, police may conduct a search of the passenger compartment for weapons, if:

i) The police possess a reasonable belief that the suspect is dangerous and may gain immediate control of weapons; and
ii) The search of the passenger compartment is “limited to those areas in which a weapon may be placed or hidden.”

Question 28

Containers in Vehicle

Answer 28

Probable cause to search a vehicle extends only to containers and compartments that reasonably could hold the evidence they are searching for. If the police have probable cause to search only a particular container, they may search only that container, and not the entire car.

Question 29

Consent by 3Ps over D’s property

Answer 29

The defendant can generally suppress evidence seized during such a search unless (i) an agency relationship exists between the third party and the defendant that gives to the third party the right to consent on behalf of the defendant, or (ii)the defendant otherwise gives the third party such rights with respect to the property that the defendant assumes the risk that the third party would allow the property to be searched (e.g., a shared duffle bag)