Probable Cause

4 Key excerpts on "Probable Cause"

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  eBook - PDF

  Criminal Procedure

  Law and Practice

  • Rolando del Carmen, , Craig Hemmens, , Rolando del Carmen, Craig Hemmens(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 70 CHAPTER 3 The Court then added that “on many occasions, we have reiterated that the probable-cause standard is a ‘practical non-technical conception’ that deals with ‘the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.’ ” Therefore, it must be stressed that although the phrase “more than 50 percent” is convenient and, to many, extremely helpful in determin-ing Probable Cause, the Court itself does not use it. It is therefore a layperson’s term rather than a precise legal concept that courts use. Same Definition of Probable Cause in the Many Areas of Police Work Probable Cause is required in four important areas of police work: ◆ Arrests with a warrant ◆ Arrests without a warrant ◆ Searches and seizures of property with a warrant ◆ Searches and seizures of property without a warrant An arrest is, of course, a form of seizure—but a seizure of a person, not of property. For practical purposes, other aspects of the criminal justice process, such as grand jury proceedings or preliminary hearing determinations, may have their own interpreta-tion of Probable Cause, but police work uses the same definition as the Court. Both the legal and the practical definitions of Probable Cause are the same in all phases of police work—whether it involves arrests with or without a warrant or searches and seizures of property with or without a warrant. It is also the same defini-tion whether the search involves persons, property, or motor vehicles. But there are important differences in focus, as discussed later.

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  eBook - ePub

  Books, Crooks, and Counselors

  How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure

  • Leslie Budewitz(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Quill Driver Books

    (Publisher)

  2

  Legal Issues in Criminal Investigation

  LAWYERS , JUDGES, COURT STAFF, LAW PROFESSORS, EVEN THE

  companies that publish court decisions would have much easier jobs if criminal law didn’t create so many issues. So would fiction writers—but we would miss so many opportunities to make our stories more interesting. We’ll look first at Probable Cause, the foundation for search and arrest. Next, we’ll discuss a few issues related to searches, and we’ll clear up some common misunderstandings about Miranda warnings. We’ll also talk about missing witnesses, confidential informants, public defenders, extradition, and recording.

  What is Probable Cause to search or arrest?

  Probable Cause is a reasonable belief, based on facts, that evidence of a particular crime will be found in a particular place, or that a particular person is responsible for a particular crime. “Mere suspicion” is not enough.

  The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides:

  The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches 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 to be seized.

  State constitutions include a similar provision. In a nutshell: • no unreasonable search and seizure; • no warrants without Probable Cause, supported by oath and particularity. Keep in mind that these limitations apply only to government action, e.g., actions of law enforcement officers or others acting with government authority, not to private acts.

  Consider a case of suspected homicide: A woman is missing. Her husband’s alibi for the time she disappeared can’t be confirmed. He admits having a girlfriend. A neighbor calls police to report recent digging in the backyard. When police arrive, the husband is packed and ready to go. Do police have Probable Cause to arrest him or to obtain a warrant to search the home?

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  eBook - ePub

  Criminal Evidence

  • Matthew Lippman(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  An arrest, as we have seen, is more intrusive than a stop and frisk, and courts have held that under the Fourth Amendment reasonableness standard, an arrest requires Probable Cause. Officers possess Probable Cause for an arrest where the facts and circumstances within their knowledge and of which they have reasonably trustworthy information are sufficient to warrant a person of reasonable caution in the belief that an offense has been or is being committed. Stated somewhat more simply, Probable Cause requires that a police officer objectively conclude, based on reasonably reliable facts, that a crime has been committed and that the person being arrested has committed the crime (Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 162 [1925]). Photo 14.1 The police may arrest an individual where there is Probable Cause to believe that the individual has committed or is committing a felony or where the police observe a misdemeanor and are authorized to arrest the individual for the misdemeanor. AP Photo/Grand Rapids Press, Chris Clark The Supreme Court has stressed on a number of occasions that Probable Cause is based on “common sense” and on a “practical evaluation of the totality of the facts” and that Probable Cause cannot be reduced to a set of rules or to a mathematical formula. It is a matter of “probabilities” rather than “certainties.” In an effort to clarify the degree of proof that is required for Probable Cause, the Supreme Court has observed that Probable Cause is more than reasonable suspicion and less than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard required for a criminal conviction. In making this objective determination, judges recognize that law enforcement officers may possess a special expertise based on their experience on the streets. In United States v. Ortiz, the U.S. Supreme Court observed that border patrol officers are entitled to rely on their experience in combating illegal immigration in making a Probable Cause determination (United States v. Ortiz, 422 U.S

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  Criminal Procedure

  Theory and Practice

  • Jefferson L. Ingram(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  11. Summary

  The federal or a state government may warrantlessly take a person into custody when Probable Cause exists to believe that that person has committed a felony or when the individual has committed a misdemeanor in view of the officer. Probable Cause exists where the facts and circumstances that have been presented or made known to an officer of reasonable caution would reasonably lead that officer to conclude that a crime has been committed or is being committed by a particular person. The concept of Probable Cause requires only a proper proof or a substantial chance that a particular person has committed a crime. The evidence encompassing Probable Cause that comes to a law enforcement officer may be from an informant’s information, the police officer’s observations, a fellow officer’s information, a citizen’s complaint, the Internet, or a combination of these sources, as well as others. Where Probable Cause to arrest exists, the officer may make the arrest wherever the person may be found, except that if the person subject to arrest is inside his or her own home, an arrest warrant will probably be required, absent the presence of an excusing legal theory such as consent to enter or an emergency. If an arrestee is discovered within the home of a third party, as a general rule, a warrant will be required to enter the home of a third party as a way of protecting the rights of privacy belonging to the third party. As a strong general rule, arrest warrants can only be issued by neutral and detached judicial officials when the presence of Probable Cause to arrest has been demonstrated.

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