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WI: Good faith exception saves pre-Gant search

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant's locked car was subjected to a search incident that would be invalid under Gant, but the court holds the good faith exception applies to a pre-Gant search incident. State v. Dearborn, 2010 WI 84, 2010 Wisc. LEXIS 110 (July 15, 2010), affg 2008 WI App 131, 313 Wis. 2d 767, 758 N.W.2d 463 (Ct. App. 2008): [*P44] We can find no principled way to distinguish Krull or Ward from this case. Both this court and the United States Supreme Court have determined that the retroactivity rule does not bar application of the good faith exception in situations where police act in objectively reasonable reliance on settled (albeit subsequently overruled) law. As we have already explained, the officers were following the clear and settled precedent of this court; this is exactly what officers should do...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 17, 2010 (boomark / email).