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10-28-2008, 12:20 PM
| | Junior Member | | Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 2
| | | Exclusionary Rule
I have a hypothetical situation involving the exclusionary rule/4th amendment.
Say, a group of minors under the age of 21 were to be pulled over on a routine traffic stop or something in the state of Massachusetts. As the police officer asks for the license and registration or whatever, he notices say backpacks in the back seat which the passengers of the car have alcohol in the backpacks. Being a weekend day he suspects that there is clearly a chance that it is alcohol and not school books, is he allowed to pull everyone out on a protective sweep or for any reason? And if the officer does pull everyone out of the car and search the backpacks on the basis of a protective sweep, could the minors get in trouble for minor possession of alcohol or would it be thrown out because it's "fruits of the poisonous tree."
To sum it up, is the officer allowed to even pull the occupants out on suspicion and if they find alcohol even though that was not their intent or even in general, could the occupants be in trouble?
Yes, I know this whole situation could also be avoided if people did not drink underage and if the backpacks were tossed in the trunk because then they could not force you to open the trunk however the car could be without a trunk, suv, station wagon, whatever.
Thanks in advance. |
10-28-2008, 12:34 PM
| | Senior Member | | Join Date: May 2000 Location: Catatonic State
Posts: 75,781
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by athornberg  I have a hypothetical situation involving the exclusionary rule/4th amendment.
Say, a group of minors under the age of 21 were to be pulled over on a routine traffic stop or something in the state of Massachusetts. As the police officer asks for the license and registration or whatever, he notices say backpacks in the back seat which the passengers of the car have alcohol in the backpacks. Being a weekend day he suspects that there is clearly a chance that it is alcohol and not school books, is he allowed to pull everyone out on a protective sweep or for any reason? And if the officer does pull everyone out of the car and search the backpacks on the basis of a protective sweep, could the minors get in trouble for minor possession of alcohol or would it be thrown out because it's "fruits of the poisonous tree."
To sum it up, is the officer allowed to even pull the occupants out on suspicion and if they find alcohol even though that was not their intent or even in general, could the occupants be in trouble?
Yes, I know this whole situation could also be avoided if people did not drink underage and if the backpacks were tossed in the trunk because then they could not force you to open the trunk however the car could be without a trunk, suv, station wagon, whatever.
Thanks in advance. | **A: why are you asking? |
10-28-2008, 12:43 PM
| | Junior Member | | Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 2
| | | I'm taking a law class and we covered the amendments a few weeks ago and similar questions were asked but this just came up in my mind. |
10-28-2008, 01:11 PM
| | Senior Member | | Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 6,673
| | | If the search is illegal, it will be excluded unless it would have been found anyway.
What do you think about the totality of the circumstances in the first search? Was it reasonable?
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