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Motivation vs. Belief and Objective vs. Subjective in Criminal Law

By Eric Lipman

In an interesting post on the Dorf on Law blog this morning, Sherry Colb explores the difference between motivation and belief in assessing the actions of both criminal defendants and police officers. Colb's post is an extension of her column posted at FindLaw, in which she criticizes the Supreme Court's decision in Michigan v. Fisher, released last December. In Fisher, the Court applied the "emergency aid" exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement in holding that a police officer's entry into a home sans warrant was justified because, upon his arrival, the officer observed the defendant bleeding, screaming and throwing things inside the house. Colb opines that the "little-noticed" per curiam opinion "could ultimately undermine the constitutional requirement of 'probable cause.'" Why? Because the Court held that whether or not a situation meets the "emergency aid" test is to be judged objectively rather than subjectively; i.e., the relevant question isn't what the officer on the scene believes, "but whether there was 'an objectively reasonable basis for believing' that medical assistance was needed, or persons were in danger." If logically extended to the probable cause standard for a search, Colb says, this ruling could mean that: an officer who knows that...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on August 18, 2010 (boomark / email).