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

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

Proof of actual ownership for apparent consent is not required.

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

It might have been prudent to wait for proof of ownership of a vehicle, but the officer did not have to when somebody asserted that they were the owner for purposes of granting consent. Commonwealth v. Graham, 2008 PA Super 100, 2008 Pa. Super. LEXIS 996 (May 13, 2008).* "¶11 ... [A]sking for consent to search did not turn a voluntary meeting into a seizure. Appellant's position, if accepted, would essentially vitiate any consent to search where probable cause to search did not already exist. Such is not the state of the law." State v. Harrington, 2008 Wash. App. LEXIS 1091 (May 13, 2008).* Office gave a mixed motive for the stop of headlights and what he thought was suspicious activity, and this made the stop pretextual under Washington law...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on May 16, 2008 (boomark / email).