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MT: Informant's consent to record defendant in private place violated MT Constitution

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Montana holds that an informant's consent to record defendant in private place violated the state Constitution. [This case was under submission for two years; it was 3-1-3.] State v. Goetz, 2008 MT 296, 2008 Mont. LEXIS 444 (August 20, 2008): [*P54] For the above-stated reasons, we hold that the electronic monitoring and recording of the Defendants' conversations with the confidential informants, notwithstanding the consent of the confidential informants, constituted searches subject to the warrant requirement of Article II, Section 11 of the Montana Constitution. The electronic monitoring and recording of those conversations without a warrant or the existence of an established exception to the warrant requirement violated the Defendants' rights under Article II, Sections 10 and 11...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on August 22, 2008 (boomark / email).