Search & Seizure Flashcards
Exclusionary rule’s application to quasi-criminal proceedings
Grand jury can question witness based on illegally-obtained evidence, exception to exclusionary rule in cases whereby officer who conducted search was aware of person’s parole status, evidence admissible in forfeiture proceedings but not in criminal proceedings, exclusionary rule is inapplicable in civil deportation hearing
Exclusionary rule
This rule prohibits the introduction of evidence obtained in violation of 4th, 5th, and/or 6th amendment rights. Illegally obtained evidence is inadmissible at trial but can be used for impeachment purposes. Limitations: not applicable to grand juries, civil proceedings, internal agency rules, and parole revocation proceedings / good faith reliance on law, defective search warrant, or clerical error / impeachment purposes / Miranda violations
Exclusionary rule applies to government conduct only
Evidence obtained by private persons is excluded, unless they are acting as instruments or agents of the gvt. Exclusionary rule doesn’t apply if third party seizes object then calls police to conduct separate search with respect to same object.
Good faith exception to exclusionary rule
Evidence admitted even in unreasonable search or seizure due to act in good faith. Exclusionary rule deters police misconduct, protects illegal use of evidence..act in good faith doesn’t deter anything. Facially deficient warrant is plainly invalid. Ct makes mistake, not judge, exclusionary rule doesn’t apply. Compliance vs reliance - can rely on precedent, not bad faith.
Police reliance on error on own records can be good faith
Officers innocent of wrongdoing where warrant was recalled 5 months previously,mistake of another police database, 4th amendment violated but exclusionary rule doesn’t apply because no bad faith. RELIANCE on another police agency database.
Evidence obtained in Mexico used in US prosecution
4th amendment doesn’t apply because it states “the people” which refers to a class of people part of a national community, Mexican citizen not part of these “people”
4th amendment protects reasonable expectation of privacy
Legitimate, reasonable expectation of privacy has 2 prongs: must expect it, society must expect it as reasonable. What a person knowingly exposes to public isn’t a subject of 4th amendment protection.
Trespass theory/doctrine
Constitutes a search if there was trespass
Is a warrant needed to search/seize abandoned property?
No
Possession of property and liberty of person
4th amendment protects interests in possession of property and liberty of person. Can’t deprive person’s possessory interests in their property or their liberty interest. Seizure may take place but no 4th amendment violation if no invasion of individual’s privacy
Areas protected from search & seizure
Business and commercial property, curtilage, inside of car, squeezed bag are covered/4th amendment violation. Not covered: open fields/skies, prison cell, exterior of vehicle including VIN, GPS tracking device of vehicle, dog sniff, beeper, pen registers.
Sensory enhancing equipment
Enhanced human vision/slight enhancement doesn’t reveal intimate details as to raise constitutional concerns, not a 4th amendment search
Warrantless thermal imager ok?
No, could only obtain the info if search done in house, constitutes a search, there doesn’t have to be trespass
Katz test
Whether the individual has an expectation of privacy that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable
Exigent circumstances
Circumstances requiring an extraordinary or immediate response; an exception to the prohibition on warrantless arrest or search when police officers believe probable cause to exist and there is no time for obtaining a warrant.
Knock and announce
Requirement that a police officer must first knock and announce his intention before he enters someone’s home in the execution of a valid warrant.
Probable cause - warrantless arrest based on informant
Warrantless arrest based on info from informant has probable cause if magistrate reasonably infers that the informant gained the info in a reliable way.
Probable cause - search warrant based on informant’s info
2 part test in Spinelli must be met so magistrate can conclude that informant’s info provides p/c for search 1) informant’s reliability 2) informant’s basis of knowledge.
Traditional standard/today’s law: magistrate must have substantial basis for concluding that the search would uncover evidence of wrongdoing. 2 prong test can’t determine reliability of an anonymous person.
Probable cause - falsehoods in search warrant affidavit
Defendant can challenge an affidavit that is facially sufficient. Must show there is a false stmt made knowingly and intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth, and that the false stmt is needed to show p/c, to invalidate the affidavit.
Probable cause - disclosure of informant’s identity
Officers don’t have to disclose informant’s identity if trial judge is convinced by evidence that the officers relied in good faith upon credible info supplied by a reliable informant
Probable cause - official channels
Officers called to aid other officers in executing arrest warrants are entitled to assume that the officers requesting aid offered the magistrate the information requisite to support an independent judicial assessment of probable cause. However, where the contrary is true, can’t rely on officers to make arrest - illegal arrest
Plain view doctrine
Authorized seizure of illegal or evidentiary items visible to a police officer whose access to the object has some prior 4th amendment justification and who has probable cause to suspect the item is connected with criminal activity
Probable cause - anticipatory warrants
Anticipatory warrants require magistrate to determine (1) that it is now probable that (2) evidence of a crime or a fugitive will be on the described premises (3) when the warrant is executed. Probability determination for a conditioned anticipatory warrant looks to likelihood that the condition will occur and thus that a proper object of seizure will be on the described premises. To comply with 4th amendment probable cause requirement, 2 prerequisites of probability must be satisfied. (1) if triggering condition occurs there is fair probability that evidence of crime will be found in particular place, and (2) probable cause to believe the triggering condition will occur.
Warrant preference
When practical, police must obtain judicial approval of searches and seizures. Strong preference to do so when practical.