Criminal Procedure

Midterm Review
• Search and Seizure Flow Chart
• Hypothetical Fact Pattern Exercise
• Practice questions
• Questions and Answers
• Power point slides available at:
• http://jyates.myweb.uga.edu/
 Basic Fourth Amendment Analysis

Search by Police good Search

government? faith? Valid
Inevitable
Discovery?
Reasonably Independent Warrant Exception?
source? *Incident to arrest
expect privacy?
Standing? No? *Auto search
*Plain view
No?
*Consent
Was there a
warrant? *Stop & frisk
*Hot pursuit/evanescent
evidence

Was
warrant Search
proper and Valid Search
executed Valid
correctly?
 One method of answering
hypothetical fact pattern questions
• I.R.A.C. Method
– Issue
– Rule
– Application
– Conclusion
• All elements outlined above are important, but,
of course, the “Application” element is most
important
• This could be used for either essay writing
organization or to clarify your thinking in a
multiple choice question context
 PRACTICE MIDTERM EXAMINATION - FACT PATTERN TYPE QUESTION

The state of New York passed a law prohibiting the use, possession, or sale of tea
leaves and tea products. This includes iced tea, hot tea, or any other manner that tea might be
ingested or sold. The possession, use, or sale of tea is a felony punishable for up to five years
in prison. Unfortunately, the use of tea persists in the city of New York where tea abuse has
reached epidemic proportions. Jerry and his friend Elaine are quite fond of hot tea as is
Elaine’s new boyfriend Lloyd Braun. Jerry lives down the hall from “Cosmo” Kramer who
prefers iced tea. Jerry and Elaine’s friend George dislikes tea but, likes to hang out with tea
users because he wants to be “hip”. The new police chief in town, Newman (the former
mailman), has vowed to rid the city of this “vile weed”.
One day Kramer is sipping iced tea in his apartment and there is a knock on his
door. Kramer answers the door to find Newman, his former friend and now tea czar.
Newman asks, “Not hiding anything in here are we Kramer? I know you used to have a
certain fascination with ... iced tea!” Newman stares the frightened Kramer in the face and
asks, “mind if I have a look around?” Kramer, not being very well versed in his constitutional
rights, believes that he must let the forceful Newman in and replies, “yeah, sure whatever you
want, big officer man.” Newman then spies a tall cool glass of iced tea on Kramer’s coffee
table. He confiscates the evidence and places Kramer under arrest for possession of tea.

-- So, is the evidence excludable at trial? Why or why not?

 Meanwhile, Jerry, Elaine and George are over at Lloyd Braun’s house drinking hot tea. Of
course, George does not partake of the tea, stating that he had a bad experience in junior high school
with tea. Lloyd has an excellent assortment of tea leaves which impresses Jerry and Elaine very much,
but irritates George. George believes that Lloyd Braun is a showoff and a no-talent pretty boy. Since
early childhood his parents always talked about how great Lloyd Braun is and how he (George) should
be more like him. Sitting there at the “tea table” George plots his revenge. He goes into the kitchen
(supposedly to get a drink of water) and finds an exquisite tin can of tea with Lloyd Braun’s name
engraved on it. He sticks it under his coat and tells the group that he needs to go home to do something.
The next day he goes to see Newman at the police station and produces the tea can with Lloyd Braun’s
name on it. Newman arrests Lloyd Braun in his apartment (he has an arrest warrant) and while he is
there notices several pictures of Elaine and Lloyd on display. This piques Newman’s curiosity. Could it
be that she drinks tea also? He goes over to Elaine’s apartment and Jerry answers the door.
“Hello, Newman,” quips the irritated Jerry.
“You two wouldn’t be drinking tea would you?” inquires Newman. Jerry shakes his head in
a nervous manner.
Newman further asks, “so ... are you and Elaine living together, here?” Jerry angrily replies,
“no Newman, you know that she’s dating Lloyd Braun, and furthermore you know that I live in your
apartment complex.”
“Well, if you two have nothing to hide, then I guess you won’t mind me looking around the
place for tea,” retorts Newman. “No, go right ahead” says Jerry since he knows that Lloyd always
keeps the tea at his place. What he didn’t know is that Lloyd had given Elaine a special gift tin can of
tea with Elaine’s initials on the can. In no time, Newman finds the tea and arrests Elaine on the spot.

-- So, is the evidence against Lloyd Braun excludable? What about the evidence against Elaine? If so,
on what grounds? If not, then why not?
 Jerry now has two friends under arrest for possession of tea. He meets
George at Monk’s cafe for lunch to talk about the arrests. George starts
discussing how they shouldn’t have gotten mixed up with Lloyd Braun and that
Jerry’s use of tea was probably a bad idea. Jerry replies, “you’re crazy, I love tea.
I like it hot, iced ... I even like to put it in cakes sometimes.” George somberly
looks at Jerry and says “I’m sorry my friend, but I had to do it”. Whereupon
Newman shows up and exposes the tape recorder under George’s jacket. “Yes!”
exclaims Newman. “I had to get George a date with Marisa Tomei to do this, but
it was worth it!” Jerry’s taped statements are used against him at trial and are the
basis of a subsequent search warrant for his apartment. The search turns up tea
leaves.
-- So, is the “confession” admissible at trial? Are the tea leaves from the
subsequent search of the apartment admissible? Why or why not?
 Case based M/C Question

1) According to the Supreme Court opinion in Terry v. Ohio:

A) Police have the authority to detain a person briefly for

questioning even without probable cause.
B) Police cannot stop citizens without probable cause to believe that
crime is afoot.
C) In any instance where the police can stop someone, they can
also frisk the person.
D) Police must have clear and convincing evidence that crime is
afoot before stopping a citizen.
Hypothetical based M/C Question

1) Government agent Fox Mulder approaches a suspect, actress Tea

Leoni, in a public place and politely asks if she is willing to answer
some questions. This action by Mulder:

A) must be justified by a warrant

B) is the equivalent of an arrest
C) is the equivalent of a stop
D) is not a seizure
 Alternative to M/C Answers
(This language will be on the test re M/C answers)

“If you feel that the question is ambiguous or may lead

to more than one answer, then you may answer it with
a short essay. You may do this by: (a) clearly
denoting the question that you are answering on the
back of the examination, (b) stating the grounds for
the ambiguity, and (c) fully answering the given
question (a paragraph or more), including alternative
answers for different ways that the ambiguous
portions of the question may be interpreted.”