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D.C. Cir.: Unzipping jacket was a search; bumping into a hard object and not searching at time violated Dickerson

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A zipped jacket manifests an expectation of privacy in what is underneath so it is a search. Here, officers unzipped appellant's jacket to facilitate a showup. In the process, the officer bumped into a hard object but did not go futher, and defendant was moved to nearby spot for the showup. The search thus violated Dickerson. United States v. Askew, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 13315 (D.C. Cir. June 20, 2008) (en banc): The disputed search of appellant in this case cannot be distinguished in any meaningful way from the impermissible search in Dickerson. Here, as in Dickerson, neither the constitutionality of the initial stop nor the protective frisk was at issue. In addition, neither the frisk of Dickerson nor the frisk of appellant produced any evidence of a weapon...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on June 25, 2008 (boomark / email).