CA5: District court’s failure to credit def’s claim of possessory interest in car is affirmed

Defendant was a passenger in a car in which he claimed he had a possessory interest because it belonged to his domestic partner and he claimed to have paid $2000 toward the car. The district court didn’t credit that testimony because no corroboration was provided at all, and it held that he had no expectation of privacy in the car. United States v. Johnson, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 6599 (5th Cir. Mar. 5, 2021).

The parties agree that a syringe was unreasonably seized by the police, but the Court of Appeals erred in not considering harmless error. The Supreme Court finds that the seizure was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt on this record. State v. Thornton, 2021 Kan. LEXIS 20 (Mar. 5, 2021).*

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