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Autopsy results would not be suppressed as the product of an allegedly unlawful search, which it was not

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant called the police because of his girlfriend's death. They arrived and called paramedics. When it was determined that she was dead, they called the ME. After that a search warrant was sought. There were five entries all together, but the defendant only challenged the last two: the ME bound by statute to attend deaths and the one under the search warrant. As to the ME's entry, the defendant's consent to the first three entries by the call to the police required the ME to attend as well, and it was a continuation of the prior entries and with probable cause and exigent circumstances ("the evidence was in danger of degrading"). State v. Ferrara, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 165 (February 13, 2008): In this case, it is also obvious that there was probable cause to enter the trailer: defendant had reported a shooting, there was a body in the trailer, the cause of death was unknown, the victim's scalp contained a wound of uncertain origin, and defendant gave inconsistent explanations about what happened...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on February 17, 2008 (boomark / email).