Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

GA: "What's in your pocket?" not a seizure

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Question to defendant "what's in your pocket?" is not a seizure. The five minute stop led to consent. Carnes v. State, 2008 Ga. App. LEXIS 936 (August 19, 2008)* (Comment: Remember, Georgia is notoriously bad in over-interpreting the validity of consent during a highway stop. See Tracey Maclin, Police Interrogation During Traffic Stops: More Questions Than Answers, 31 Champion 34 (Nov. 2007).) Defendant lacked standing to question the seizure of a gun from the person of a co-defendant. United States v. Griffin, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 17684 (11th Cir. August 19, 2008) (unpublished).* Defendant's affidavit of guest standing may have been enough to get a hearing, but his failure to testify left the record empty on that issue, so the court finds he lacks standing...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on August 21, 2008 (boomark / email).