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WA: Gant retroactive and no GFE

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Gant is retroactive, and a good faith exception is inappropriate, with separate analysis of the Fourth Amendment and state constitution. State v. McCormick, 2009 Wash. App. LEXIS 2440 (September 23, 2009). Retroactivity: ¶9 The Supreme Court has firmly established that “a new rule for the conduct of criminal prosecutions is to be applied retroactively to all cases, state or federal, pending on direct review or not yet final, with no exception for cases in which the new rule constitutes a ‘clear break’ with the past.” Griffith v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 314, 328, 107 S. Ct. 708, 93 L. Ed. 2d 649 (1987). Likewise, in Johnson, the Court decried the “actual inequity that results” when similarly situated defendants receive different treatment after a change in the law...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on September 26, 2009 (boomark / email).