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photo credit: aslinth
Among the many discussions clogging the bandwith of the local listserve this week was one about the validity of a traffic stop based on the police officer’s observation of an air-freshener hanging from the rear-view mirror [...]
Posted in cops, ct state law, dui, dumb laws, fourth amendment on Jun 22nd, 2008
Apparently, Oregon is trying. The story goes thusly: Oregon sent a cease and desist letter to Justia and Public.Resource.Org. They claimed a copyright in the “arrangement and subject matter compilation of Oregon statutory law…” Thus, Oregon is asking these sites to take down the Oregon statutes they make available for free.
Most of the correspondence is [...]
Posted in criminal law principles, dumb laws, fourth amendment, whaaaa? on May 6th, 2008
Do you have a reasonable expectation of privacy in your car, which you left unlocked in the parking lot of your place of business? Would police require a warrant to open the doors to your car and look inside? Assume nothing in plain sight.
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Pop quiz: Reasonable expectation of privacy”, url: “http://testblog.apublicdefender.com/2008/05/05/pop-quiz-reasonable-expectation-of-privacy/” });
Sphere: Related [...]
Posted in criminal law principles, fourth amendment on May 5th, 2008
Grits is all over the story that the search warrant and accompanying affidavit used to enter and search the polygamist compound headed by the now convicted Warren Jeffs may be illegal.
For starters, the initial warrant named the wrong person. Dale Barlow, the 50-year old man who an anonymous phone call accused of marrying and assaulting [...]
Posted in criminal law principles, fourth amendment on Apr 9th, 2008
Just to show you how skewed the priorities of legislators are, let us compare two bills side by side.
On the left, we have the eyewitness id reform bill and on the right, the “collect DNA from the innocent” bill.
One is clearly needed, the other could be a significant violation of due process. (Yes, I do [...]
Posted in ct legal news, ct state law, eyewitness id, fourth amendment, proposed legislation, wrongful convictions on Mar 25th, 2008
Earlier today, I was perusing the transcript of oral argument in the Supreme Court in the matter of Virginia v. Moore. Mr. Moore’s case was argued by Tom Goldstein, of SCOTUSblog. I’ll let his co-blogger give you the skinny:
If the hearing had been confined to the two core arguments of opposing counsel, the discussion would [...]
Posted in fourth amendment, supreme court on Jan 14th, 2008
When do police officers have the power to carry a weapon, patrol the streets and make arrests, but yet cannot be questioned for their actions? When they’re University Police. Back in May, a 16-yr old boy was arrested for riding his bike on a sidewalk. He was then charged with breach of peace and briefly [...]
Posted in cops, ct legal news, ct state law, fourth amendment, sixth amendment on Dec 22nd, 2007
Would you believe it? Two reversals in two weeks! Two! The Appellate Court yesterday reversed a conviction on the grounds that a Motion to Suppress should have been granted on an issue, apparently, of first impression in Connecticut.
We conclude that the defendant was unlawfully detained, that his consent to search the vehicle was tainted by [...]
Posted in criminal law principles, ct legal news, ct state law, evidence, fourth amendment on Nov 14th, 2007
For those of you interested, the search warrants in the Cheshire case have been made public. The Bristol Press (of all things) has made them available on their website here.
There’s really nothing remarkable in any of them (and certainly not anything new), except for one bit that I found a little laughable.
The police sought permission [...]
Posted in cheshire, ct legal news, fourth amendment on Oct 24th, 2007
Connecticut was fast becoming a scary place to live. As yesterday’s post shows, residents of a small section of Southbury, a suburban town in Connecticut, were becoming increasingly concerned and paranoid with the news that one of their own was about to take in her brother - a convicted sexual offender - upon his release [...]
Posted in ct legal news, ct state law, david pollitt, fourth amendment, sex offenders on Oct 11th, 2007