Criminal Procedure Outline

Criminal Procedure Outline

I. 4th Amendment
۞ The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation (to a natural and detached magistrate), and Particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
A. Exclusionary Rule
1. Evidence will be excluded if its obtained by violating the 4th, 5th or 6th amendment (Weeks) (Federal rule)
2. Extends the ER to states. (Mapp)
3. Exclusionary rule does not apply to grand jury proceedings & Probation hearings or parol revocation hearings & tax assessment & deportation hearings but it DOES apply of forfeiture hearings (something taken in the process of an arrest). In general this is only for criminal trials.
4. ER applies to the Govnt and the Govnt agents (police, postal or anyone who works for the state of fed govnt) If evidence is found but not by the police in an illegal search, then the exclusionary rules does not apply.
5. The exclusionary rule CAN be used against people who are in this country illegally. But it can not be used on someone who is being charged in the US but the evidence was collected in another country.
6. Expansions on the ER rule (more ways evidence can be excluded)
a. “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” (Wong Sun)
1) Illegal search or seizure can taint later info or evidence so that it can not be used in court. This works forward but now backwards. (One to assert this must be the original victim of the primary illegality.
ii. Examples of what can NOT be admissible in court
1) Illegal detention/arrest leading to consent (Royer)
2) “” “” leading to statements or confessions (Brown)
3) “” “” leading to further observation by officer
4) illegal home entry leading to observations of evidence in plain view
5) illegal seizure of evidence or questioning leading to defendant’s arrest based on that evidence or questioning
iii. 3 Exceptions: (where fruit of the poisons tree does not apply)
1) The identity of a defendant will not be suppressed even though the identification of the defendant (a photo taken for a line up) would not have been collected but for an illegal arrest. (Crews)
2) The identity of a witness will not be suppress even though the identification of the witness would not have been discovered but for the illegal search(Ceccolini)
a) Similar rule as to Miranda violation (Tucker); now extended to hard evidence (Patane)
3) Attenuated connection (Elstad) sufficient break in causal connection can dissipate earlier taint. In Elstad, earlier Miranda violation statement deemed not to “taint” subsequent good Miranda statement So this goes for Miranda violations and warrant violations?
a) Exception to the exception above: Seibert-Elstad rule: Does not apply where continuous interrogation (Won Sun applies here)
7. Limitations of the ER Rule (when the ER does not apply)
a. Good faith exception: When officers who act in good faith compliance with a search warrant that they believe to be valid, the evidence is not excluded even if the warrant is later found to not be invalid. (Leon)
i. This does not apply to officers that contribute to the mistake themselves.
b. Lack of Standing: When the Δ can NOT assert an expectation of privacy over the area or object that is seized, they do not have standing and therefore the evidence is admissible even if it was retrieved illegally to some one else’s rights. (Rakas)
c. Independent Source: Evidence is admissible when police observe the evidence illegally at first, but then seize it later in a lawful manner without use of the previous illegal observation. (Murray/Se?? Get case names for this..
d. Inevitable Discovery: This is when police discover evidence and seize it illegally but the argument is made that even had they not seized it illegally, they would have inevitably discovered it later by lawful means. This is always a hypothetical. This also goes for vehicle impounds. (Williams II/”Christian Burial case”)
e. Impeachment: If evidence or information is seized illegally and can not be used in court, it can be used at a later date in another trial to impeach someone’s (show their lying) testimony. (Walder for evidence) (Can also be fore Miranda/Edwards/Jackson for violation statements)
B. 4th amend protection of “reasonable expectation of privacy”
1. What is protected by the 4th amendment
a. 4 Rules of Search and Seizure
i. The 4th amendment protects people and NOT places (a person can be unreasonably seized without a warrant also)
ii. You do not need a physical trespass to violate the 4th amendment (phone booth)
iii. Do not need to seize tangible object to violate the 4th amendment (sound waves)
iv. There just need to be a REASONABLE expectation of privacy in order for there to be a violate of the 4th amendment (REOP) (Katz)
b. Freedom of movement
c. People’s possessions Protected areas include business premises
2. What is NOT protected by the 4th amendment
a. Open Fields & Skies
i. No protection of the open skies BUT if a plain is flying too low over an area that would ordinarily be considered private, there is a chance (if there’s a good argument there’s a possibility) that the court could find a violation of the 4th amendment. (Riley)
ii. An open field is not protected but a curtilage that immediately surrounds the house is.
1) Curtilage is defined by how close to the house it is, if its enclosed by a fence or anythin