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Pages:
2 pages/≈550 words
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1 Source
Style:
APA
Subject:
Law
Type:
Essay
Language:
English (U.S.)
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MS Word
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Topic:

Constitution Law: Exceptions to the Fourth Amendment

Essay Instructions:

Chris Rock is lying on the street bleeding from his head when Police Officer Tom Jones arrives and asks him what happened. “That jerk Will Smith smacked me with some trophy and robbed my money.
Officer Jones: I know Smith.
Chris Rock: He’s a thief and a drug dealing son of a …
P.O. Jones: He’s a drug dealer?
Rock: Yeah, he was supposed to sell me some dope and instead he robs me and smacks me in the head.
Jones: Do you know where he lives?
Rock: Yeah 123 Main Street apt 3.
Jones: And you’re sure he has drugs there?
Rock: Yes sir.
After this exchange, Jones goes to the address and knocks on the door, a young woman opens the door and asks, “Can I help you?”
Smith: I’m a police officer and I want to search this apartment.
Young woman: “You have a warrant?”
At that moment, Jones hears gun shots coming from a room inside the apartment. He rushes past the young women and kicks in the door. He sees Smith lying on the floor and another man standing over him holding a gun and a bag of cocaine. The man immediately drops the gun and puts his hands up. “It’s his gun, he was trying to rob me but I grabbed it from him and it went off.”
Smith is lying on the floor bleeding from his shoulder but is conscious and does not seem badly hurt. Jones asks the man, “Who are you?”
“I’m Joe Davis. I’m his roommate.”
Jones arrests Davis and Smith. He puts both in handcuffs and begins searching. He opens a closet door.
Smith: You can’t search unless you have a warrant.”
Jones: Shut up. Look what I found – guns and money.
It turns out the gun that Davis’s used to shoot was illegal but Davis claims it was owned by Smith.
The evidence seized is the gun used by Davis, the guns and the money in the closet, and the bag of cocaine. Based on the legality of Officer Jones’s actions which pieces of evidence will be admissible. Explain why or why not they will be admissible.
refer to what in the Constitution either allows or prohibits the actions described.

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Constitution Law Paper
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Constitution Law Paper
In evaluating the case scenario, officer Jones ought to have arrested Chris Rock due to his connection to Will Smith, allegedly a drug dealer. Although police officers have broad powers to execute their duties, including discretion, officer Jones acted negligently by not arresting Rock after confessing a connection to a drug dealer. The police officer had probable cause to believe that Rock had committed a crime; thus, the arrest could have been reasonable and not violated the Fourth Amendment. Although the Fourth Amendment provides a legal ground for police officers not to conduct unreasonable searches and seizures within a suspect’s premises, how this constitutional right can be implemented in concrete terms remains unspecified (Kerr, 2020).
Nevertheless, the seized gun used by Davis, the bag of cocaine, guns, and money are all admissible pieces of evidence. Rule 404(b) allows evidence admission concerning a defendant’s “wrong, crime or other act” to demonstrate “opportunity, motive, knowledge, plan, absence of mistake, intent, preparation, identity, or devoid of an accident.” In this way, the bag of cocaine is admissible evidence due to Smith’s alleged drug-trafficking activities, thus proving his intent to distribute dope and cocaine and his knowledge as well as devoid of mistakes. The circumstances and nature of the earlier reports concerning Smith’s drug-trafficking activities are significantly similar to the evidence obtained from the room inside the apartment. Given that the officer arrested Smith in connection to cocaine, an offense that is “reasonably near in time” to the alleged peddling of dope, the marijuana is “substantially similar” to the current evidence at issue. Rule 404(b) indicates that ev...
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