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Freedom Against Unreasonable Search and Seizure Essay

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As said by the Fourth Amendment, " the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against an unreasonable search and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things be seized." In simplest terms the Fourth Amendment says that all searches are to be conducted under authority of a warrant( Barany). Many times this amendment is violated which can result in the dismissal of a case, release of a guilty suspect, or the arrest of an innocent individual that was not properly been given his or her rights. In this paper topics involving the violations and …show more content…

Now a police officer has the right to detain and search any an all individuals without a warrant, just as long as she or he can justify a suspicion that the suspect may be armed. Also anything that an officer feels during pat downs may be used as probable cause for a complete and unwarranted search. Since the Terry vs. Ohio case the " stop and frisk" power had now been extended to the power to "frisk" cars (Cronin ,145-147). There are a few exceptions to the general rule against warrantless search and seizure though., some of which I will review are : the plain view exception, emergency situation exception, automobile exception, and the border search exception. The plain view exception refers to the police using the five senses: sight , hearing, smell, taste, and touch. By these means anything detected does not have the Fourth Amendment protection if police officers are lawfully present when they detect something (Berger). So in general, anything of evidence nature of another crime that is immediately observed without search is seizurable. For this the three pronged test is used: 1) a officer engaged in an activity of lawful nature at the time; 2) the object (s) of incriminating character was , from the start, apparent and my no means concealed; 3) the police or official had lawful access to the object and was accidentally discovered (Dash, 15-16, 19). The second is the emergency situation exception. This exception is

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