Criminal Procedure

1
Criminal Procedure CJ 422 Chapter 3 Searches and
Seizures Andrew Fulkerson, JD, PhD Southeast
Missouri State University
2
Purpose of Searches and Seizures

• Obtain information
• Most criminals and witnesses do not give up
  information willingly

3
Purpose of Searches and Seizures

• Law officers get information from involuntary
  methods
• searches
• seizures
• interrogation
• identification procedures

4
Purposes of Search and Seizures

• Protect officers from armed suspects
• Protect property of detained suspects (inventory
  seaches)
• Protect officials from lawsuits
• Detect drug use among students and public
  employees

5
Purpose of 4th Amendment

• Ensure that government does not collect
  information unreasonably

6
4th Amendment - History

• Search and seizure law originated with the
  printing press
• Persons published books and leaflets that
  criticized the king
• King sought to stop seditious libel

7
4th Amendment - History

• General Warrants
• used to silence critical printers
• enforce taxes on goods
• gave broad authority to enter homes and
  businesses

8
4th Amendment - History

• Writs of assistance
• gave power for officers to force private citizens
  to assist in the searches and seizures

9
4th Amendment - History

• . 4th Amendment prevents govt. from collecting
  evidence in unreasonable manner
• Protects liberty-right to come and go
  (locomotion)
• Protects privacy-right to be let alone
• Protects against government interference-not
  private

10
4th Amendment Analysis

• Three-step analysis
• Was the government action a search or seizure?
• If it was a search or seizure, was it
  unreasonable?
• If the search or seizure was unreasonable, should
  the evidence be excluded?

11
4th Amendment Analysis

• Govt. actions that may trigger 4th Amendment
  analysis
• Encounters between police and individuals in
  public places
• Encounters between police and individuals at
  police station

12
4th Amendment Analysis

• Govt. actions that may trigger 4th Amendment
  analysis
• Encounters between prisoners and officials in
  jails or prisons between students and officials
  in school between employers and employees in
  public agencies

13
4th Amendment Searches

• Trespass doctrine (until 1967)
• Required physical intrusion into constitutionally
  protected area
• persons
• houses
• papers
• effects

14
4th Amendment Searches

• Trespass doctrine (until 1967)
• Handwriting samples, voice samples not searches

15
Privacy Doctrine

• 4th Amendment protects persons, not places.
• Balances need for govt. to control crime, with
  the citizens right of privacy.

16
Privacy Doctrine

• Balance usually weighs in favor of govt. need to
  control crime
• Protects against arbitrary government intrusion

17
Expectation of Privacy

• Two-pronged test
• Subjective privacy. Whether a person had an
  actual expectation of privacy
• Objective privacy. Whether the subjective
  expectation of privacy is reasonable.

18
4th Amendment

• Katz v. U.S., 389 U.S. 347 (1967)
• U.S. v. Miller, 425 U.S. 435 (1976)
• Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979)

19
Electronic Surveillance

• U.S. v. Kim (telescope)
• California v. Ciraolo (airplane)

20
Electronic Surveillance

• U.S. v. White, 401 U.S. 745 (1971)
• Kyllo v. U.S., 533 U.S. 27 (2001)

21
Plain View, Hearing, Smell, and Touch

• Discovery of evidence by ordinary senses

22
Plain View Doctrine

• Discovery of items by means of plain view, touch,
  hearing and smell fall outside the scope of the
  4th Amendment.

23
Plain View

• Conditions for plain view searches and seizures
• Officers are lawfully present
• Detection occurs without advanced technology to
  enhance the senses
• Detection is inadvertent-not planned

24
Plain View

• Plain view doctrine applies only to detection by
  ordinary senses.
• Some enhancement is allowed (eyeglasses,
  flashlights)
• High powered enhancement is not
• (x-rays)

25
Dog Sniffs

• Illinois v. Caballes, 125 S.Ct. 834 (2005)

26
Open Fields

• Exception-curtilage the area immediately
  surrounding the house
• includes yard, pool, patio, attached garage
• intrusions into curtilage are 4th Amendment
  searches

27
Open Fields

• Criteria for determining what is the curtilage
• distance from house
• presence or absence of fence
• measures taken to prevent public view

28
Open Fields

• 4th Amendment does not protect open fields, even
  if officers trespass
• Society not recognize any reasonable expectation
  of privacy in open fields

29
Abandonment

• Person has no reasonable expectation of privacy
  in abandoned property
• Abandonment has two elements
• intent to throw away property
• acts that prove that intent

30
Abandonment

• Abandonment requires intent to give up control of
  property
• Supreme Court has adopted a totality of the
  circumstances test

31
Abandonment

• California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35 (1988)
• State v. Morris, 165 Vt. 111, 680 A.2d 90 (1996)

32
Public Places

• 4th Amendment does not protect what police
  discover in public places
• Public places include private business areas open
  to the public
• Does not include areas reserved for employees
  only

33
Public Places - Exception

• Public place exception not include private areas
  of public restrooms
• The open area of public restroom is public
  place
• Protects the stalls of restrooms, except for what
  officers can see above and below partitions, and
  through the cracks in partitions

34
4th Amendment Seizures

• Stopping person and asking questions is not a
  seizure under the 4th Amend.

35
4th Amendment Seizures

• California v. Hodari, 499 U.S. 621 (1991