Post details: M.D.Pa.: Defendant lacked standing to challenge search of apartment he visited but had standing as to his own computer he brought with him

11/25/09

Permalink 06:18:49 am, by fourth Email , 287 words, 60 views   English (US)
Categories: General

M.D.Pa.: Defendant lacked standing to challenge search of apartment he visited but had standing as to his own computer he brought with him

Defendant lacked standing to challenge the search of the apartment he was in because he had no connection to it. However, he could still challenge the search of his computer that was found there, which the government conceded. United States v. Scott, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 108855 (M.D. Pa. November 20, 2009):

Although Scott lacks standing to challenge the seizure of property from the Rawleigh Street apartment, he is not foreclosed from contesting the subsequent search of his Dell 1501 laptop computer by the Cumberland County Forensics Unit. Scott clearly possessed a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of what the government acknowledges is his personal property. Furthermore, the government concedes that it did not obtain a warrant to search the contents of the computer, and offers no justification for not doing so. Perhaps as a consequence of this oversight, the government does not contest Scott's motion to suppress the fruits of the laptop computer search. (See Doc. 194 at 14.) Accordingly, the contents of the computer will be suppressed.

A power line easement was not a part of the curtilage under Dunn. [Rather than simply find it was not, the parties tried this issue and the court made detailed findings.] United States v. Rey, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 108836 (D. N.M. August 25, 2009).*

The presence of a shotgun carried into the house in a shots fired call justified the entry under the emergency doctrine. The search for the gun was also justified as a protective sweep. United States v. Parrott, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109002 (E.D. Pa. November 20, 2009).*

Defendant tossed his gun while fleeing, and this was like Hodari D. and there was no seizure because of his flight. United States v. Grant, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 108874 (E.D. Pa. November 19, 2009).*

Pingbacks:

No Pingbacks for this post yet...

FourthAmendment.com

Notes on Use

February 2010
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
<< <     
  1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28            

Search

© 2003-10
Online since Feb. 24, 2003

To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $
Contact / About

 www.johnwesleyhall.com
 www.LawofCriminalDefense.com

Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court

Federal Appellate Courts
  First Circuit
  Second Circuit
  Third Circuit
  Fourth Circuit
  Fifth Circuit
  Sixth Circuit
  Seventh Circuit
  Eighth Circuit
  Ninth Circuit
  Tenth Circuit
  Eleventh Circuit
  D.C. Circuit
  Military Courts: C.A. A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG

Hall's links to state opinions
Google Scholar
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions

Most recent SCOTUS cases:
2009-10 Term:
Cert. granted:
  City of Ontario v. Quon, 08-1338 granted Dec. 14, 2009 (ScotusWiki)

Decided:
  Michigan v. Fisher, decided Dec. 7, 2009 (per curiam) (ScotusWiki)

2008-09 Term:
Decided:
  Herring v. United States, 129 S. Ct. 695, 172 L.Ed.2d 496, decided Jan. 13 (ScotusWiki)
  Pearson v. Callahan, 129 S. Ct. 808, 172 L. Ed. 2d 565, decided Jan. 21 (ScotusWiki)
  Arizona v. Johnson, 129 S. Ct. 781, 172 L. Ed. 2d 694, decided Jan. 26 (ScotusWiki)
  Arizona v. Gant, 129 S. Ct. 1710, 173 L. Ed. 2d 485, decided April 21 (ScotusWiki)
  Safford Unified School District #1 v. Redding, 129 S. Ct. 2633, 174 L. Ed. 2d 354, decided June 25 (ScotusWiki)


Research Links:
  Supreme Court:
  SCOTUSBlog
  SCOTUSWiki
  S. Ct. Docket
  Solicitor General's site
  Briefs online (but no amicus briefs) 
  Curiae (Yale Law)
  Oyez Project (NWU)
  "On the Docket"–Medill
  S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
  S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com

  General (many free):
  LexisWeb
  Google Scholar | Google
  LexisOne Legal Website Directory
  Crimelynx
  Lexis.com $
  Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
  Findlaw.com
  Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
  Westlaw.com $
  F.R.Crim.P. 41
  www.fd.org

  DOJ Computer Search Manual
  USSS computer search website

  Talkleft
  ACLU on privacy
  Privacy Foundation
  Electronic Privacy Information Center
  Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
  How Appealing Blog

"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)

"You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going because you might not get there."
Yogi Berra

"There ought to be limits on freedom."
George W. Bush (May 1999)

"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)

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
—Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania (1759)

“A patriot must be ready to defend his country against his government.”
—Edward Abbey

“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)

"Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose."
—Kris Kristopherson, "Me and Bobby McGee" (sung by Janis Joplin)

“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 LePew

"There is never enough time, unless you are serving it."
Malcolm Forbes

"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)

XML Feeds

What is RSS?

Who's Online?

  • Guest Users: 22

powered by
b2evolution