D.Minn.: No 4A claim for seizure of legal papers in prison

There is no Fourth Amendment claim for seizure of legal papers when an inmate was moving within a prison. Smith v. Starr, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 139361 (D. Minn. Aug. 5, 2022).

“Following the arrest, however, the agents lawfully knew both that Lazzaro had a phone and that the phone was in Lazzaro’s apartment. Under these circumstances, and given the obvious importance of the phone to the investigation (which is why the case agent asked Rielly to give him any phone that Lazzaro possessed at the time of his arrest), the Court is persuaded that the agents would have obtained a warrant to search Lazzaro’s apartment for the phone had Rielly known that such a warrant was necessary. As a result, any evidence obtained from the phone is admissible under the independent-discovery doctrine (or, alternatively, the inevitable-source doctrine).” United States v. Lazzaro, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 139362 (D. Minn. Aug. 5, 2022).*

A state court’s interpretation of state law is binding on a federal habeas court. CoA denied. Adkins v. Warden, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 21671 (6th Cir. Aug. 4, 2022).*

This entry was posted in Independent source, Prison and jail searches, Unreasonable application / § 2254(d). Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.