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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-24,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 425,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 45,000 posts since 2003 (26,730+ on WordPress as of 12/31/23) -
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--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
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"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't."
—Me -
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
–Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw), Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things (1868) (erroneously attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, among others) -
“I am still learning.”
—Domenico Giuntalodi (but misattributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (common phrase throughout 1500's)). -
"Love work; hate mastery over others; and avoid intimacy with the government."
—Shemaya, in the Thalmud -
"It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
—Charles Dickens, “The Old Curiosity Shop ... With a Frontispiece. From a Painting by Geo. Cattermole, Etc.” 255 (1848) -
"A system of law that not only makes certain conduct criminal, but also lays down rules for the conduct of the authorities, often becomes complex in its application to individual cases, and will from time to time produce imperfect results, especially if one's attention is confined to the particular case at bar. Some criminals do go free because of the necessity of keeping government and its servants in their place. That is one of the costs of having and enforcing a Bill of Rights. This country is built on the assumption that the cost is worth paying, and that in the long run we are all both freer and safer if the Constitution is strictly enforced."
—Williams v. Nix, 700 F. 2d 1164, 1173 (8th Cir. 1983) (Richard Sheppard Arnold, J.), rev'd Nix v. Williams, 467 US. 431 (1984). -
"The criminal goes free, if he must, but it is the law that sets him free. Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence."
—Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659 (1961). -
"Any costs the exclusionary rule are costs imposed directly by the Fourth Amendment."
—Yale Kamisar, 86 Mich.L.Rev. 1, 36 n. 151 (1987). -
"There have been powerful hydraulic pressures throughout our history that bear heavily on the Court to water down constitutional guarantees and give the police the upper hand. That hydraulic pressure has probably never been greater than it is today."
— Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 39 (1968) (Douglas, J., dissenting). -
"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property."
—Entick v. Carrington, 19 How.St.Tr. 1029, 1066, 95 Eng. Rep. 807 (C.P. 1765) -
"It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. And so, while we are concerned here with a shabby defrauder, we must deal with his case in the context of what are really the great themes expressed by the Fourth Amendment."
—United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting) -
"The course of true law pertaining to searches and seizures, as enunciated here, has not–to put it mildly–run smooth."
—Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 618 (1961) (Frankfurter, J., concurring). -
"A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable."
—Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 325 (1987) -
"For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. ... But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected."
—Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967) -
“Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
—United States v. Olmstead, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1925) (Brandeis, J., dissenting) -
“Liberty—the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government—is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs too well as by those whose purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.”
—United States v. $124,570, 873 F.2d 1240, 1246 (9th Cir. 1989) -
"You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes / You just might find / You get what you need."
—Mick Jagger & Keith Richards -
"In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me–and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
—Martin Niemöller (1945) [he served seven years in a concentration camp] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew "The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime."
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948)
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Category Archives: Attenuation
NC: Firing gun at officer during alleged illegal traffic stop removed the taint
Even if the defendant was subjected to an illegal stop, his firing his gun at the officer was a new crime that removed the taint. State v. Hester, 2017 N.C. App. LEXIS 558 (July 18, 2017). Compelled testimony in the … Continue reading
CAAF: Attenuation not shown and ER applies: officer conducted ‘unwise, avoidable, and unlawful’ investigation and arrest
Defendant’s arrest was unlawful and the government failed to show attenuation. “However, we do not think it necessary that the agent’s misconduct be outrageous for the third factor in Brown to apply. Though there is no evidence of bad motive … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Illegal Terry frisk led to subsequent searches after arrest warrant found; no suppression under Strieff
Defendant’s Terry frisk was invalid, but the existence of a warrant for his arrest requires that the subsequent searches not be suppressed under Strieff. United States v. Sisco, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94761 (W.D. Mo. Jan. 11, 2017), adopted, 2017 … Continue reading
Hudson gutted the knock-and-announce rule by making it purely optional 11 years ago today
Hudson v. Michigan, 547 U.S. 586 (2006), decided 11 years ago today, unraveling the knock-and-announce rule of Wilson v. Arkansas (1995) and Richards v. Wisconsin (1997). It’s constitutionally required, it saves lives, it’s far more civil in a civil society, … Continue reading
IA: “New crime” exception for a crime committed against a police officer after an allegedly unlawful entry is a part of attenuation
The “new crime” exception for a crime committed against a police officer after an allegedly unlawful entry is permitted under the attenuation doctrine. Here, defendant assaulted a police officer who pursued her into her house on a warrant for arrest … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Lack of attenuation from illegal search leads to exclusion
The lack of attenuation and exploitation of the illegality of an illegal search here favors exclusion. United States v. Cordero-Rosario, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76904 (D.P.R. May 18, 2017):
D.Kan.: 37 day old knowledge of def’s suspended DL wasn’t stale for RS for a stop
The officer’s prior knowledge that defendant’s license was expired wasn’t considered stale for a stop, even for 37 days. [It’s a stop on reasonable suspicion, not a search on probable cause.] United States v. Bell, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62616 … Continue reading
IL: Def’s statement after illegal arrest when confronted with bogus GSR test was not attenuated
Defendant’s statement six hours after his illegal arrest when confronted with a bogus GSR test was not attenuated. People v. Hernandez, 2017 IL App (1st) 150575, 2017 Ill. App. LEXIS 206 (March 31, 2017), mod. on den. of rehearing, 2017 … Continue reading
AR: Knock-and-announce applies to parole searches, but Hudson adopted and exclusionary rule doesn’t apply
The knock-and-announce rule applies to parole searches, and violation of the rule is a substantial violation of the Fourth Amendment and the state constitution. The court adopts Hudson, however, and finds that the exclusionary rule should not be applied. Lane … Continue reading
CA10: Officers pulled up next to def walking along road and finally told him to stop; this was a seizure without RS
Defendant was walking down the street at night and a police car pulled up beside him and officers were talking to him as he walked. Finally they told him to stop. This was a seizure for which there was no … Continue reading
OR: Detention at gunpoint wasn’t attenuated from statement
Defendant’s stop and detention was with a show of force, and his statement wasn’t attenuated from his de facto arrest. Suppression order affirmed. State v. Pichardo, 360 Ore. 754 (Jan. 20, 2017), aff’g 275 Ore. App. 49, 364 P.3d 1 … Continue reading
CA8: Def’s statement was attenuated from the false statement that led to the SW being issued
An untrue statement in an affidavit for search warrant was attenuated from defendant’s later confession. All four factors of the attenuation doctrine weighed in favor of not suppressing statements defendant made during his interview with the agent. The causal connection … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Def’s flight from an unreasonable stop, after initial detention, wasn’t attenuated
Defendant’s flight and dropping gun from an illegal arrest here wasn’t an intervening circumstance. There was nothing in the 911 call that justified defendant’s stop in the first place. Defendant complied at first, and then fled. United States v. Gallinger, … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: No attenuation to save statement made after arrest w/o PC
No attenuation: defendant was arrested without probable cause and gave a statement, and there is no intervening event. Statement suppressed. United States v. Vilella, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 168741 (E.D.Pa. Dec. 6, 2016):
M.D.La.: Later suppression of drugs that led to indictment and finding more drugs on arrest doesn’t suppress the second find
Defendant was subjected to a search and arrested with drugs. He was indicted on that. When executing the arrest warrant, officers found defendant with more drugs. After that, defendant succeeded in suppressing the evidence in the first case that led … Continue reading
ID: The state conceded the DL held too long, but taint was not purged, so suppression should have been granted
The trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion to suppress and in finding that the evidence was purged from the taint of an unlawful detention. The State conceded that an unlawful seizure occurred when the officer held onto defendant’s driver’s … Continue reading
Utah v. Strieff, 2016 Supplement, § 10.02; maybe overcoming Strieff
Utah v. Strieff is discussed in six sections in the 2016 supplement, primarily in § 10.02: § 10.02 on the attenuation doctrine Page 10-12 Add at end of section: In Utah v. Strieff,63 the officer had been tipped that drugs … Continue reading
SCOTUS: Utah v. Strieff: Even if stop lacked RS, finding an arrest warrant on def justified his search; the warrant is attenuated from the stop (so they can violate the 4A if there’s a warrant out)
Defendant was stopped leaving a drug house under surveillance. He gave his name, and an arrest warrant came back for him. Attenuation is found without regard to the validity of the stop. The attenuation doctrine is not limited to the … Continue reading