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

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

FL4: Searching for a dead body in a cigarette pack unreasonable; whole premise for entry was a ruse

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Police got consent to enter defendant's apartment on a claim to the defendant that they had a report of a dead body being dragged rolled up in a carpet. Once inside, they did a search for drugs, and this was illegal. State v. Bartling, 2008 Fla. App. LEXIS 14239 (Fla. App. 4DCA September 17, 2008): Based upon the reasoning of the supreme court in Wyche, we conclude that the trial court in the instant case was correct in granting the motion to suppress based upon the totality of the circumstances. As in McCord, the trial court in the instant case concluded that "the level of trickery went far beyond what law enforcement officers should utilize when trying to gain entry into a citizen's home in the wee hours of the morning." As the supreme court noted in Wyche, we recognize that Bartling's understandable desire to clear his name of the stigma of a murder accusation is a circumstance to consider...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on September 20, 2008 (boomark / email).