On July 13, 2016, the Court of Appeals of Georgia decided Bailey v. State[i], in which the court of appeals addressed whether the state statute that authorized the warrantless seizure of a blood sample from an unconscious DUI suspect was legal in light of recent US Supreme Court and Supreme Court of Georgia precedent. The relevant facts of Bailey, taken directly from the case, are as follows: Elmer Lamar Bailey was with his cousin when the vehicle they were traveling in crossed the center line of a highway, struck an embankment, and overturned. Bailey, who appeared to be the driver of [...]

On July 14, 2016, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided the United States v. Torres [i] , in which the Ninth Circuit examined whether the inventory search of the air-box of a lawfully impounded vehicle is legal under the Fourth Amendment. The relevant facts of Torres, taken directly from the case, are as follows: On April 24, 2012, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department ("LVMPD") officers responded to a call from dispatch regarding a domestic battery occurring in a moving car in Las Vegas, Nevada. An individual had called 911 to report a male driver pulling the hair of a female passenger. The [...]

Evidence Seized During Unconstitutional Investigatory Stop May Not Be Excluded Where During Stop the Officer Learned of Arrest Warrant and Search was Conducted Incident to Arrest based on Warrant Attenuation Doctrine-“The Fruit of the Poisonous Tree has Been Sanitized” All officers are taught that when evidence is improperly seized that the evidence is subject to being excluded based on the exclusionary rule. There are a number of exceptions to exclusion including the “attenuation doctrine” which legally means that while the evidence was tainted by improper law enforcement conduct, that taint has been “attenuated” by some intervening fact. In simplifying this [...]

Child’s Statements to Teachers May Sometimes be Used Against Abuser Even Though Child is Unavailable for Cross-Examination Over the last decade, the United States Supreme Court has considered a number of cases that deal with statements made by victims/witnesses who are not available in the legal sense or literal sense for trial and whether or not the statements made to law enforcement during the event or investigation can be used against the defendant. The constitutional argument is that all defendants have a Sixth Amendment Right to confront and cross-examine their accuser. Most of these cases have turned on the circumstances [...]

On August 18, 2016, the Court of Appeals of Georgia decided Harper v. State [i], which serves as instructive concerning the law related to the authority of bail bondsman to enter the residence of third parties to revoke a bond. The relevant facts of Harper, taken directly from the case, are as follows: Harper was acting alone as a bail recovery agent for a professional bondsman when he entered the residence of Tina McDaniel through a locked door, without McDaniel's knowledge or permission, and arrested Stephen Collier inside the residence on behalf of the bondsman for the purpose of surrendering Collier to state [...]

On August 23, 2016, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided the United States v. Phillips [i] , in which they examined whether a search incident to arrest based upon an arrest for writ of bodily attachment was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The relevant facts of Phillips, taken directly from the case, are as follows: In early 2014, Phillips was a wanted man. Police sought to question him about a recent shooting in Miami and to arrest him for failing to pay child support. In February, a Florida court issued a writ of bodily attachment for unpaid child support that "ordered" the [...]