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On Tuesday, October 7, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Herring v. United States. In this case, the Supreme Court considers the limits of the exclusionary rule. The case arises from a search incident to the arrest of Bennie Dean Herring by police officers in Coffee County, Alabama. An investigator, suspicious of Herring, checked to see if there was a warrant for his arrest in neighboring Dale County and was informed that there was. So Herring was arrested, and the search incident to arrest turned up methamphetamine and a pistol. In the mean time, however, the Dale County Warrant Clerk discovered that the warrant for Herring's arrest had actually been recalled, but the arrest and search were already complete. Herring was charged and convicted with possession of methamphetamine and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He appealed arguing that the district court had erred in refusing to grant his motion to suppress the evidence from the unconstitutional search, but the Eleventh Circuit affirmed. The Supreme Court is now asked to decide whether the Fourth Amendment requires the exclusion of evidence seized incident to an arrest conducted on the basis of credible, but ultimately erroneous, information negligently provided by another law enforcement agent. University of Louisville Professor of Law Luke Milligan discusses the case. 

 

Oral Argument - October 7, 2008:
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/07-513.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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