Winning, until proven guilty …

Searches and Seizures

• The Fourth Amendment protects from unreasonable searches and seizures

• Searches must be conducted with a court warrant – probable cause

• Exclusionary rule restricts the use of illegally obtained evidence.

Searches and Seizures• Good Faith Exception (Leon): Police have

reason to believe their actions were legal • Plain view doctrine:

1. the officer to be lawfully present at the place where the evidence can be plainly viewed

2. the officer to have a lawful right of access to the object

3. the incriminating character of the object to be “immediately apparent.

• Supreme Court rulings limited the warrant requirement for legally stopped cars and for students and their property in school.

• Recent rulings clarified “knock and announce” rule and duel occupancy searches

Self-incrimination • The Fifth Amendment protects:

• witnesses before grand juries and congressional committees.

• defendants against forced confessions.

• The Escobedo (1964) and Miranda (1966) decisions expanded the protections of persons arrested as suspects in a criminal case.

• Public Safety Exception (Quarles): existence of exigent circumstances that require protection of public safety

Guarantee of Counsel

• The Sixth Amendment guarantees a defendant the right to an attorney.

• In federal cases, courts generally provide an attorney for defendants who cannot afford one.

• 14th Amendment requires state courts also provide attorneys for defendants.

Double Jeopardy

• The Fifth Amendment protects accused persons from double jeopardy, or being tried twice for the same crime– person may be tried more than once

for the same act when a crime violates both a federal and a state law.

• It is not double jeopardy if a single act involves more than one crime– defendant may be tried for each

offense– In the case of a hung jury, a second

trial is not double jeopardy.

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

• The Eighth Amendment forbids cruel and unusual punishment.• Capital Punishment most often challenged under 8th amendment

– Briefly banned in 1970s, later affirmed as constitutional

• Administration of the death penalty is an ongoing controversy under this amendment – lethal injection, minors, mentally ill