Legal Question: 4th Amendment

[chris302001]

I don't smoke weed (ever)

I wasnt talkin about u bro, you beat me to reply

 

[chris302001]

deleted

Goddamnit every time i wanna give red k, I dont have any k power!

 

[Humble Pride]

Goddamnit every time i wanna give red k, I dont have any k power!

what'd he say???? lol

 

[Metasomatized Ijolite]

what'd he say???? lol

Honestly, I don't remember but it wasn't anything Red K worthy. I deleted it after you toned down. For the record, my neighborhood has turned into a cesspool of drugs and the violent crime that goes with it. I don't care if other people want to smoke dope but when they start shooting people, that bothers me. There have been 4 shootings on my block in the past 3 months with three of the victims dead. A lot of us citizens are getting really upset because this area was considered a great neighborhood 10 years ago. There's a lot of us angry at the police, mayor, city council, etc. for not taking care of us. I'm glad that I rent. Property values are decreasing.

 

[Stefka]

OK, here's the situation. The cops are called to a traffic accident. Upon arriving at the scene, they notice a strong odor of marijuana coming from a house. They inspect the house from the outside while on the owner's property and notice a back door is open. They proceed to enter and find the motherload of pot. They then proceed to search the rest of the residence. No warrant has been obtained at this point.

The police chief claims that because the back door was open, the police had the right to enter under "special circumstances to secure the residence and inspect for violence".

I've never heard of any special circumstance allowing officers to enter a home "to secure it" because a door was open. You don't forfeit your 4th amendment rights by leaving your door open. Is the search legal? I say it's not. There was no consent from the resident, there were no exigent circumstances (nobody was even home), there was no warrant, and the police were not in "hot pursuit" of a suspect. Those are the only exceptions allowing a warrantless entry by the cops that I can find. Any lawyers on here that know otherwise?

The cops are talking about the emergency aid exception to the warrant requirement. In 4th Amendment cases, houses are the most protected spaces of all. (Scalia goes ape shit over houses). So the cops would have to make a strong showing that they saw indications that they needed to render emergency assistance to an injured occupant or to protect an occupant from imminent injury. Unless there was a blood trail from the car accident to the open door, I don't really see how just an open door could be enough. The example they use in my case book is two cops walking by a house and looking through the window and seeing a kid being attacked with a knife.

One or more cops should have stood around and secured the property while another one went and got a warrant. The strong smell of marijuana and blah blah and whatever blah blah based on their years of experience as police officers gave them probable cause to believe that there was contraband in the building.

I'm pretty sure that the pot will be suppressed. I doubt the owners will win a 1983 claim though.

 

[Razorguns]

If the door is OPEN, they have a requirement to go in and check what's going on. You want a head story on tomorrow's paper abouta family that was gunned down, cops walked by an open door, and no one checked it out?

Did they use that law for that purpose or to look up the marijuana? Well duh. But they're well within their rights.

And next time, put down the bong and start drinking tea and hot chocolate to relax yourself. They're legal.

r

 

[seagrave]

Stefka is right. The highest expectation of privacy is in the home. They could look in the house through a window to help develop PC for a warrant, but not walk in through an unlocked door. At best they could gave possibly and that is possibly gone in to secure the house for the safety of the officers and to prevent the destruction of the contraband while obtaining a warrant. Of course that assumes that they already had enough to get a warrant.

Razor's argument if the door is open they have a requirement to go inside would have to apply to every home in every neighborhood any time you open the door.

 

[Metasomatized Ijolite]

If the door is OPEN, they have a requirement to go in and check what's going on. You want a head story on tomorrow's paper abouta family that was gunned down, cops walked by an open door, and no one checked it out?

Did they use that law for that purpose or to look up the marijuana? Well duh. But they're well within their rights.

And next time, put down the bong and start drinking tea and hot chocolate to relax yourself. They're legal.

r

Yeah, I think I remember reading something about that case law.

 

[Razorguns]

Razor's argument if the door is open they have a requirement to go inside would have to apply to every home in every neighborhood any time you open the door.

That is true.

The law is 'If there is suspicion of foul play or a criminal act in progress they have the right to enter any premises' (loosely translated from its legalese).

That law's been challenged a zillion times, trust me - you ain't gonna be the one hero who can challenge it to the supreme court

It's a good law. If I'm at work, and my door's wide open - check that shit out and close it before some gangbanger shits get some ideas.

r

 

[chris302001]

what'd he say???? lol

lol I dont know, i didnt get to read it either.....I just wanted to red him.