AL: Failure to have arrest warrant in hand under state law voids the arrest and the search incident that occurred; Heien inapplicable

Defendant was unreasonably and mistakenly arrested without the officer having the arrest warrant in hand as required by state law, and the search incident to the arrest is suppressed. The court finds Heien and the good faith exception inapplicable because of this fundamental error. Berry v. State, 2019 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 64 (Sept. 20, 2019), different result and conviction affirmed on rehearing, Berry v. State, 2020 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 9 (Jan. 17, 2020), posted Jan. 21, 2020.

Defendant concedes that his frisk was justified. The only question is whether the plain feel doctrine applies to the crunchy wad in his pocket, which the court finds it does because it was obvious to the officer it was methamphetamine. Gardner v. State, 2019 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 66 (Sept. 20, 2019).*

This entry was posted in Arrest or entry on arrest, Plain view, feel, smell, Reasonableness. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.