Criminal Procedure Flashcards
Exclusionary Rule
Prohibits the introduction of evidence obtained in violation of a D’s 4th, 5th, and 6th amendment rights
Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
Evidence obtained from exploitation of the unconstitutionally obtained evidence
Fruit of the Poisonous Tree - Exceptions
1) Fruits derived from statements obtained in violation of Miranda; 2 ) Evidence obtained from a source independent of the original illegality; 3) An intervening act of free will by the D; 4) Inevitable discovery; 5) Violations of the knock and announce rule
Fruit of the Poisonous Tree - Limitations
1) Inapplicable to Grand Jurise, civil procedures, violations of State law, internal Agency Rules, and Parole revocation proceddings; 2) Good faith reliance on Law, Defective Search Warrant, or clerical error; 3) Use of excluded evidence for impeachment purposes; 4) Knock and Announce Rule Violations
Exclusionary Rule - harmless error test
If illegal evidence is admitted, a resulting conviction should be overturned on appeal unless the government can show beyond reasonable doubt that the error was harmless.
Who bears burden of establishing the admissibility of evidence RE: Exclusionary Rule?
Prosecution - Preponderance of the evidence standard
Fourth Amendment
People should be free from unreasonably searches and seizures
What constitutes a seizure?
Under the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable person would feel that he was not free to decline the officer’s requests or otherwise terminate the encounter
What constitutes an arrest?
When police take a person into cutody against her will for purposes of criminal prosecution or interrogations
Requirement to arrest
Probable Cause - Warrant generally NOT required if they are arresting someone in a public place.
Other types of detention
Stop and Frisk, Automobile Stops, Detention to Obtain a Warrant, Occupants of the Premises, Station House Detentions
Stop and Frisk
Police need reasonable suspicison of criminal activity or involvement in a completed crime, supported by articulable facts. Investigative purposes. If police have reason to believe the person is armed and dangerous, they may frisk for a weapon. Duration and Scope - Police must act in a diligent and reasonable manner in confirming or dispelling their suspicions. May ask detainee for name. Brief property seizures are similarly valid if based on reasonable suspicison
Automobile Stops
Generally - cannot stop absent at least reasonable suspicion that a law was violated. However - If special law enforcement needs are involved, cops can set up roadblocks.
Roadblock requirements
1) Stop cars on the basis of some neutral, articulable standard; and 2) Be designed to serve purposes closely related to a particular problem pertaining to automobiles and their mobility.
Does a roadblock constitute a sezirue? To Whom?
Yes, to the driver and any passengers. Passengers have standing to raise wrongful stop as a reason to exclude evidence found during stops
Pretextual Stops
If police have probable cause to believe a driver violated a traffic law, they may stop the car, even if their ulterior motive is to investigate a crime for which they lack sufficient cause to make a stop.
Detentions to Obtain a Warrant
If police have PC to believe a suspect had hidden drugs in his home, the may, for a reasonable time, prevent him from going into the home unaccompanied so that they can prevent him fro destroying the drugs while they obtain a warrant
Occupants of the Premises
With a search Warrant to search for contrband, cops can detain occupants of the premises during a proper search
Station house detentions
Police must have full PC for arrest to bring a suspect to the station for questioning or fingerprinting against the person’s will
Grandy Jury Appearance
Not within 4th amendment protections, may seize someone to bring them before grand jury
Deadly Force - When can office use to apprehend a suspect?
When it is reasonable to do so
Evidentiary search and seizure issues analytical model
1) Does a D have a 4th amendment right?; 2) Did the Government have a valid warrant?; 3) If the police did not have a valid warrant, did they make a valid warrantless search and seizure?
Does a D have a 4th Amendment right?
4th Amendment protects only against governmental conduct, and need to have legitimate expectation of privacy.
Legitimate Expectation of Privacy
With respect to the place searched or the item seized. A person has a legitimae expectation of privacy any time: 1) He owned or had a right to possession of the place searched; 2) The place searched was in fact his home, whether or not he owned or had a right to possession of it; or 3) He was an overnight guest of the owner fo the place searched. Things held out to the public means to privacy
Exceptions to the warrant requirement
1) Search incident to constitutional arrest; 2) Automobile Exception; 3) Plain View; 4) Consent; 5) Stop and Frisk; 6) Hot pursuit, evanescent evidence, and emergency aid exceptions
When will a valid warrant be issued?
There is PC to believe that seizable evidence will be found on the person or premises at the time the warrant is executed. Officers must submit an affidavit to the judge to make a determination of PC independent of the officers’ conclusions.
Use of informers - Affidavit for a warrant
Totality of the circumstances test - Affidavit may be sufficient even though the reliability and credibilkity of the informer or his basis for knowledge are not established
When will a search warrant issued on the basis of an affidavit be held invalid?
NEED ALL THREE 1) A false statements was included in the affidavit by the affiant (officer); 2) The affiant intentionally or recklessly included the false statement; and 3) False statenment was material to the finding of PC
Police may reasonable rely non validity of warrant
Evidence obtained by cops in reasonable reliance on a facially valid warrant may be used by the prosecution, despite an ultimate finding that the warrant was not supported by PC.
Must the warrant be precise on its face?
YES. WARRANT (not affidavit) Must describe with reaosnable precision the place to be searched and items to be seized.
Requirments of the execution of a warrant
Must be police, executed without unreasonable delay, police must knock, announce their purpose, and wait a reasonable time for admittance. Scope of search is limited to what is reasonably necessary to discover items described in warrant. Violations of knock and announce will not trigger exclusionary rule!
People not named in warrant found on premises, can police search?
NO! May detain during a proper search, but cannot search the persons not named within the warrant
Search Incident to Constitutional Arrest
Incident to a constitutional arrest, the police may search the person and areas into which he might reach to obtain weapons or destroy evidence. Search must be contemporaneous in time and place with the arrest (does not mean simultaneous).
Automobiles and Searches Incident to Constitutional Arrest
May conduct a search fo the passenger compartment of an automobile incident to arrest only if at the time of the search; 1) Arrestee is unsecured and still may gain access to the interior of the vehicle; or 2) Police reasonable believe that evidence of the offense for which the person was arrested may be found int he vehicle.
Searches incident to incarceration or impoundment
Police may make an inventory search fo the arrestee’s belongings pursuant to established department procedure. (Same for inpounded vehicle)
Automobile Exception to the Warrant requirement
If police have PC to believe that a vehicle contains fruits, instrumentalities, or evidence of a crime, they may search the whole vehicle and any container that might reasonably contain the item for which they had PC to search. Passenger’s Belongings may be searched. If police only have PC to search a container in the vehicle, they may only search the container, nto other parts of the vehicle.
Plain View Exception to the Warrant Requirment
If: 1) Police are legitimately on the premisie; 2) Discover evidence, fruits or instrumentalities of crime, or contraband; 3) See such evidence in plain view(smells and hears ok); and 4)Have PC to believe that the item is evidence, contraband, or a fruit or instrumentality of crime..
Consent Exception to the Warrant Requirment
Police must have VOLUNTARY consent. Knowledge ot the right to withhold consent is NOT a prerequisite to establishing a voluntary consent. Scope - may be limited to the scope of consent. But generally extends to all areas to which a reasonable person under the circumstance would believe it extends.
The authority to consent
Any person with an APPARENT right to (roomate can give consent to shared space, prob not roomates’s room) use or occupy the property may consent to a search, and any evidence found may be used agaisnt the other owners or occupants. However if cops want to search when a co-occupnt is present and objects to the search and the search is targetted at the objector, NO CONSENT
Stop and Frisk exception to the warrant requirement
Cops need articulable and reasonable suspicion of criminal activity for a STOP. FRISK only justified if the office reasonably thinks that the suspect has a weapon. Scope of Intrusion - generally limited to a patdown of outer clothing. Office rmay order passengers of a stopped vehicle and frisk them and search the passenger compartment of the vehicle if the officer has a reasonable belief that an occupant is dangerous. If, during patdown, officer may reach into the suspect’s clothing and seize any item that the officer reasonably believes, based on its “plain feel” is a weapon or contraband (ADMISSIBLE!)
Hot Pursuit, Evanescent Evidence, and Emergency Aid Exceptions to the Warrant Requirement
Police in hot pursuit of a felon, may even pursue suspect into a private dwelling. Police may also seize without a warrant evidenc likely to disappear before a warrant can be obtained. Emergencies that could affect health or safety.
Administrative Inspections and Searches
Inspectors must have a warrant for searches of private residences and commercial buildings, but the PC required to obtain a warrant is more lenient that for other searches: A showing of a general and neutral enforcement plan will justify issuance of a warrant.
Administrative Inspections and Searches - Exceptions permitting warrantless searches
1) Seize spoiled or contaminated food; 2) Business within a highly regulated industry; 3) Inventory searches of arrestees; 4) Searches of airline passengers prior to boarding; 5) Parolees and their homesm(statute must authorize such searches) 6) Government employees’ desks and file cabinents where scope is reasonable and there is a work-related need or reasonable suspicion of aowkr-related misconduct; 7) Drug test of railroad employees involved in an accident; 8) Drug tests of persons seeking customs employment in positions connected to drug interdiciton; and 9) Drug tests of public school students who participate in extracurricular activites
Public School Searches
Only Reasonable if: 1) it offers a moderate chance of finding evidence of wrongdoing; 2) The measures adopted to carry out the search are reasonably related to t he objective of the search; and 3) The search is not excessively intrusive in light of the age and sex of the student and nature of t he infraction
Searches in Foreign Countries and at the Border
In Foreign Countries - 4th Amendment does not apply. At the Border or its equivalent - No Warrant necessary - No 4th Amendment rights at the border. Can open international mail when authorities have reasonable cause to suspect that the mail contains contraband. May detain someone who they think have reasonable suspicion has something in their stomach.
Wiretapping and Eaves Dropping
Wiretapping constitutes a search. Warrant authorizing a wiretap may be issued if; 1) There is PC; 2) the suspected persons involved in the conversations to be overheard are named; 3) The warrant describes with particularity the conversations to be overheard are named; 4) The wiretap is limited to a short period of time; 5) The wiretap is terminated when the desired information has been obtained; and 6) Returen is made to the court, showing what conversations have been intercepted
Exceptions to warrant requirement for wiretapping
A speaker has no 4th amendment claim If he makes no attempt to keep a conversation private.
Method of obtaining evidenc that shocks the conscience
Evidence obtained in a manner offending a “sens of justice” is inadmissible under the Due Process clause
14th Amendment - Confession
For a self-incriminating statement to be admissible under the Due Process Cluse, it must be voluntary, as determined by the totality of the circumstances. Harmless error test applies.
6th Amendment Right to Counsel
Applies once FORMAL JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS have begun. Police cnnot deliberately elicite an incriminating statement from a D outside the presence of counsel after the D has been charged absent waiver