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

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

Consent to enter on a knock and talk is not consent to search

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A consent to enter during a knock and talk is not a consent to search. United States v. Ellis, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71177 (W.D. La. June 24, 2008). DNA sample was taken from defendant under a ruse that anybody arrested for exposing himself in public needed to give a sample. It was matched to a murder. The taking of the DNA was not unreasonable. Holmes v. State, 2008 Ga. LEXIS 741 (September 22, 2008). A consent to search by a Spanish speaking defendant was not voluntary on the totality. The officer's own testimony was the key. United States v. Vidal-Pina, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71644 (D.N.J. September 22, 2008): The government's theory is that Vidal-Pina was calculating and deceptive and that his answers about his work demonstrate proficiency in English that corroborates the officers' testimony that he understood the contents of the consent-to-search form and the verbal request to search the truck...continue to full post

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