Criminal Procedure (MBE/MEE) Flashcards
Fourth Amendment: General Principles
- Basic Rule: Prohibits unreasonable searches and seizure
- Government Conduct: Protects only against government or police agency action; not private actors, unless private person directed by police or deputized private police
- Standing: D must have reasonable expectation of privacy as to places searched or items seized
Seizure
Occurs when police, by means of physical force OR show of authority, terminate/restrain a person’s freedom of movement.
Test: Under the totality of the circumstances, would a reasonable person feel free to leave?
Types: Arrest, Stop and Frisk, Police Checkpoints, and Traffic Stops
Seizure: Checkpoints
- Police may stop an automobile at a checkpoint without reasonable, individualized suspicion of a violation of the law if the stop is based on neutral, articulable standards and its purpose is closely related to an issue affecting automobiles
Note: Roadblock to perform sobriety checks has been upheld, while a similar roadblock to perform drug checks has not
Seizure: Terry Stop
- Seizure: Temporary detention that constitues seizure if the officer, by means of physical force/show of authority, has in some way restrained (physical restraint or an order to stop) the liberty of a citizen
- Valid when an officer has a reasonable suspicion based on articulable facts that, under the totality of the circumstances, someone is engaged in criminal activity
Seizure: Traffic Stops
Officers must have reasonable suspicion to stop a car, but do not need to have reasonable suspicion if they pull over everyone during a checkpoint
Seizure: Arrest
- There must be probable cause to believe that the arrested individual has committed a crime
- Generally, requires an arrest warrant but can be with or without
Note: Police can arrest for ANY crime, even a non-jailable misdemeanor, without constituting an unreasonable seizure, if they have probable cause
Seizure: Arrest Warrant
To be valid, an arrest warrant must:
* Be issued by a neutral magistrate;
* Upon a finding of probable cause; and
* Describe with particularity the D and the crime
Seizure: Scope of Arrest Warrant
- Individual’s Home: Arrest warrant allows officers to enter an individual’s home to arrest that individual
- Third Party’s Home/Business: Arrest warrant does not authorize officers to enter a third party’s home/business absent a search warrant or an exception to the search warrant requirement.
Seizure: Deficient Arrest Warrant
Does not invalidate arrest as long as there was probable cause
Seizure: Warrantless Arrest
- Arrest warrant not needed in public place, felony, or misdemeanor in arresting party’s presence
- In determining whether crime was committed, question is whether officer could conclude under totality of circumstances that there was a substantial chance of criminal activity
Seizure: Scope of Warrantless Arrest
Absent an arrest warrant, officers can only arrest someone inside a dwelling if:
* There are exigent circumstances (e.g., felony hot pursuit); or
* There is consent to enter
Seizure: Illegal Arrest
- Invalid arrest alone not a defense to crime charged
- May result in exclusion of evidence discovered during arrest
Seizure: Pretextual Arrest
As long as police have PC to believe an individual committed a crime, it is irrelevant whether the officer stopped that person for the crime for which there is PC or for some other crime
Facts Supporting Probable Cause
- Officer’s personal observations
- Information from reliable, known informant or verified unknown informant
- Evidence seized during stop and based on reasonable suspicion, discovered in plain view, or during consensual search
Search
Occurs when government conduct violates a reasonable expectation of privacy or physically intrudes onto a protected area
Note: Government’s actions are valid unless it is the defendant who has the reasonable expectation of privacy
Search: Home, Private Room, Office
- Home and curtilige, motel rooms, and business premises are protected and therefore have a reasonable expectation of privacy
- Use of drug-sniffing dog is a search if physically intrudes onto constitutionally protected property
Search: Luggage
There is a reasonable expectation of privacy for invasive searches but not for canine sniffs
Search: Open Areas/Public Streets
Outside curtilage (area of land immediately surrounding house), there is no reasonable expectation of privacy
Search: Open Field Doctrine
- Fourth Amendment is limited to “persons, houses, papers and effects”; does not extend to open fields.
- Whether a location is an open field does not turn on whether owner of field has taken measures to keep it private, but on whether such expectations of privacy are objectively reasonable.
- For activities conducted outdoors, a person generally has no reasonable expectation of privacy.
Search: Garbage Cans and Abandoned Property
No reasonable expectation of privacy
Search: Cars
- Reasonable expectation of privacy, albeit limited, in your car
- Odor from Car: No reasonable expectation of privacy
- Rental car: Fact that a person in lawful possession of a rental car is not listed on rental agreement does not defeat his reasonable expectation of privacy
Search: Use of Technological Devices
The following may constitute searches:
* Attaching a tracking device to a person without consent;
* Collecting cell-site location information from a wireless carrier to track a person
* Physically intruding on a suspect’s property to install a technological device
* Use of sense-enhancing devices not used by general public
Search: Search Warrant
To be valid, a search warrant must:
(1) Be issued by a neutral magistrate;
(2) Upon a finding of probable cause; and
(3) Describe with particularity the the places to be searched and the items to be seized (requires reasonable belief that contraband will be found)
* Can also refer to contraband as “other fruits, instrumentalities, or evidence of crime at this time unknown” and still be valid
Search: Warrant for Wiretap
Must have probable cause and a warrant, which must:
* Specifically identify whose conversations are to be intercepted, and
* Include an end date for the warrant
Note: Wiretap can be authorized for a limited period of time and police will be required to reveal intercepted conversation to court.