Warrant Execution

Question 1

(1) Does the Fourth Amendment permit officers in hot pursuit of a fleeing felon to enter a home, into which the suspect had fled, and search the home without a warrant?
(2) Does the Fourth Amendment permit officers to seize mere evidence of a crime that is not either a fruit or instrumentality of crime or contraband?

Answer 1

(1) Yes. The Fourth Amendment permits officers in hot pursuit of a fleeing felon to enter a home, into which the suspect had fled, and search the home without a warrant. Under the exigent-circumstances exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement, officers may conduct a warrantless search if delaying the search would be inappropriate under the circumstances.

(2) Yes. The Fourth Amendment permits officers to seize mere evidence of a crime that is not either a fruit or instrumentality of crime or contraband.

Question 2

1. Does the introduction into evidence of a person’s business records that have been seized from the person’s office violate the person’s Fifth Amendment’s right to be free from compelled self-incrimination?
2. Does the addition of a catchall phrase to a list of items to be searched for and seized render an otherwise valid warrant a “general” warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment?

Answer 2

1. No. The Fifth Amendment protects a person from being compelled to be a witness against himself in a criminal case. This right to be free from compulsory self-incrimination applies both to testimony and to personal records. However, in order for there to be compulsion in violation of the Fifth Amendment, the person must actually be asked to say or do something with respect to the incriminatory information.
2. No. The Fourth Amendment requires that search warrants specifically list and describe the items to be seized and limits seizures to those items. Accordingly, general warrants allowing police to rifle through an individual’s property at their discretion looking for any type of evidence of any crime are forbidden. However, the addition of a catchall phrase to a list of items to be searched for and seized in a warrant does not violate the Fourth Amendment’s specificity requirement so long as it is limited by the language of the warrant to items relating to a specific crime

Question 3

Does the Fourth Amendment require that the conditions triggering execution of an anticipatory warrant be set forth in the warrant?

Answer 3

No. The Fourth Amendment does not require that the conditions triggering execution of an anticipatory warrant be set forth in the warrant. As an initial matter, anticipatory warrants are not per se unconstitutional. Probable cause for a warrant exists whenever there is a reasonable likelihood that evidence will be discovered in a given location at the time that a search is conducted.

Question 4

Issue
Do exigent circumstances exist for forced entry if enough time has passed to make it reasonable to suspect imminent loss of evidence?

Answer 4

Yes. In the absence of exigent circumstances, after announcing their presence in the execution of a search warrant, law enforcement must wait until such time as the occupant’s failure to let them in suggests a refusal to let them in at all. That is to say, law enforcement must wait until the occupant has had a reasonable amount of time to get to the door. However, exigent circumstances may exist for forced entry after a given amount of time. The specific amount of time depends on the exigency claimed.