SD: Impending surgery exigency for warrantless blood draw

Defendant’s impending surgery was an exigent circumstance for a warrantless blood draw. “We have held that imminent medical care that threatens to destroy BAC evidence through blood transfusions, intravenous fluids, or natural dissipation over time may create exigent circumstances. … Therefore, Vortherms’s argument primarily hinges on whether law enforcement’s failure to obtain a warrant in the thirty-five minutes between Bumann’s arrival at the hotel and his arrival at the hospital was unreasonable.” State v. Vortherms, 2020 SD 67, 2020 S.D. LEXIS 142 (Dec. 2, 2020).

Whether defense counsel was ineffective for not making a Fourth Amendment challenge to taking gunshot residue tests from defendant’s hands at the time of his arrest can’t be decided on the direct appeal record. Do it in a PCR proceeding. Mosley v. State, 2020 Miss. App. LEXIS 678 (Dec. 8, 2020).

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