Definitions
A vast set of rules and guidelines that describe how suspected and accused criminals are to be handled and processed by the justice system.
What is criminal procedure?
A rule of case law that is binding on all lower courts and the court that issued it.
What is precedent?
An exception to the exclusionary rule providing that when an honest mistake is made during the course of a search or seizure, any subsequently obtained evidence will be considered admissible.
What is the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule?
An order issued by a judge directing a law enforcement officer to arrest an individual identified as one who has committed a specific criminal offense.
What is an arrest warrant?
A court created justification that falls below probable cause, but above a hunch.
What is reasonable suspicion?
An order by the court requiring the lower court to send the case and a record of its proceedings to the U.S. Supreme Court for review.
What is a writ of certiorari?
A Latin term that means to abide by or to adhere to decided cases. Most courts adhere to this principle by following established precedent.
What is stare decisis?
A practice prior to Elkins v. United States that permitted the use of evidence in federal court that had been obtained illegally by state officials.
What is the silver platter doctrine?
Required any time the police seek to search for evidence in a manner that is not governed by one of the well-established exceptions to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement.
What is a search warrant?
The area to which extends the intimate activity associated with the sanctity of a man's home and the privacies of life.
What is curtilage?
A Supreme Court created rule that requires evidence obtained in violation of the Constitution cannot be used in a criminal trial to prove guilt.
What is the exclusionary rule?
This SCOTUS decision set the precedent for defining reasonable suspicion.
What is Terry v. Ohio?
An exception to the exclusionary rule that provides that evidence considered inadmissible at one trial can be used in a later trial to impeach (i.e., cast doubt on the credibility of) the defendant. This exception only applies to defendants, not witnesses.
What is the impeachment exception?
One of the three elements of a valid warrant - any judge who does not have a conflict of interest or pecuniary interest in the outcome of a particular case or decision.
What is a neutral and detached magistrate?
More than bare suspicion; it exists when “the facts and circumstances within [the officers’] knowledge and of which they [have] reasonably trustworthy information [are] sufficient to warrant a prudent man in believing that the [suspect] had committed or was committing an offense."
What is probable cause?
Force that is likely to cause death or serious bodily harm. This type of force can be used when it is necessary to prevent the suspect’s escape and the officer has probable cause to believe the suspect poses a serious threat of death or serious physical injury to other people or police officers.
What is deadly force?
Landmark SCOTUS case that redefined what constitutes a search or seizure with regard to the Fourth Amendment. The Court held the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places.
What is Katz v. United States?
Landmark case that set the precedent for excluding unconstitutionally obtained evidence from use in state criminal prosecutions.
What is Mapp v. Ohio?
The requirement that, before executing an arrest or search warrant, officers identify themselves and their intentions.
What is the “knock-and-announce” requirement?
Any structure that a person uses as a residence (and frequently a business) on either a temporary or long-term basis.
What is a house?
The Supreme Court's practice of using the 14th Amendment’s due process clause, which holds that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” to make certain protections specified in the Bill of Rights applicable to the states.
What is incorporation?
Supreme Court case that set the precedent for the use of deadly force to apprehend a fleeing felon and declared unconstitutional a statute that authorized police officers who give notice of intent to arrest to “use all the necessary means to effect the arrest” if the suspect flees or resists.
What is Tennessee v. Garner?
An extension of the exclusionary rule that forbids any evidence obtained in an initial unconstitutional search or seizure from being admissible in trial.
What is the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine?
The Fourth Amendment requirement that an arrest warrant name the person to be arrested (or provide a sufficiently detailed description) and that a search warrant describe the place to be searched and the things to be seized.
What is particularity?
Occurs when there is government action and an infringement on a person's reasonable expectation of privacy.
What is a search?