{"id":62734,"date":"2026-01-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=62734"},"modified":"2026-01-10T10:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T15:10:09","slug":"ma-arguing-a-reddish-brown-substance-could-be-a-bunch-of-things-and-not-possibly-blood-was-amounts-to-the-type-of-hypercritical-analysis-that-is-improper-when-reviewing-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=62734","title":{"rendered":"MA: Arguing a “reddish-brown substance” could be a bunch of things and not blood “amounts to the type of \u2018hypercritical analysis\u2019 that is improper when reviewing search warrant affidavits”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The search warrant for defendant\u2019s place for evidence of a murder showed nexus and probable cause including his car (because of distance to the homicide) and laptop (communicating with the victim). It was reasonable for the magistrate to conclude that \u201ca reddish-brown stain\u201d in his room was blood. He argued it \u201c\u2018could be attributed to a multitude of substances\u2019 and that treating it as blood reflects \u2018an obvious confirmation bias.\u2019 We disagree. The defendant\u2019s argument amounts to the type of \u2018hypercritical analysis\u2019 that is improper when reviewing search warrant affidavits (citation omitted). \u2026 Read as a whole and with reasonable inferences, the reddish-brown stain was not simply found in the bedroom of a random teenager, but in the bedroom of the last person to see the victim alive \u2014 someone who also (1) met with the victim outside that bedroom shortly before her abandoned car was discovered, and (2) made efforts to hide the victim\u2019s visit. The inference that the stain was blood was both reasonable and possible. See Gentile, 437 Mass. at 577 (seizure of defendant\u2019s clothing was supported by probable cause where, inter alia, police observed stain believed to be blood on his pants).\u201d Commonwealth v. Fujita<\/a>, 2026 Mass. LEXIS 3 (Jan. 8, 2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

iPhone warrant wasn\u2019t too overbroad. \u201cThe warrant at issue here did not authorize officers to engage in an exploratory rummaging; rather, they were only authorized to search for evidence related to the drug crimes set forth in the warrant and accompanying application. The warrant includes broad language but does not amount to a blank grant to search the contents of the phone for \u2018all data\u2019 contained within it as Gamon alleges.\u201d United States v. Gamon, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2409 (M.D. Pa. Jan. 7, 2026).*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The search warrant for defendant\u2019s place for evidence of a murder showed nexus and probable cause including his car (because of distance to the homicide) and laptop (communicating with the victim). It was reasonable for the magistrate to conclude that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nexus","category-probable-cause"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62734"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62739,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62734\/revisions\/62739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}