Search Warrant Case Study

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Kansas recognizes the plain view doctrine as an exception to the search warrant requirement. An officer may seize evidence of a crime in plain view when (1) the officer is lawfully present and (2) the evidence is immediately and apparently incriminating. The intrusion that initially places the officer in plain view of the evidence may be supported by a warrant or by any other exception to the search warrant requirement. Thus, when an officer conducts a search of a vehicle incident to the driver’s arrest for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and happens to see a glass pipe in an unzipped makeup bag, the plain view doctrine permits him to seize the pipe. On the other hand, once it becomes clear that an apartment’s occupants are not in
Gant, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the exception did not apply because the arrestee was not near the vehicle and the arrest was for driving with a suspended license, making it unreasonable to believe that evidence relating to the crime would be found in the vehicle. Arrests on suspicion of driving while intoxicated or drug possession or trafficking, on the other hand, may justify a search of the vehicle for the intoxicant. In State v. Ewertz, the Kansas Court of Appeals considered the validity of a search incident to a lawful arrest for DUI and asserted that “[w]hether it was ‘reasonable to believe’ evidence relevant to the crime of [DUI] might be found in Ewertz’s vehicle” depended upon the interpretation of Gant’s “reasonable to believe” standard.” The Ewertz court explained that while some courts have interpreted the standard to mean that certain offenses categorically do or do not provide a reasonable belief, other courts equate the standard to reasonable suspicion. Noting that the Kansas Supreme Court has yet to interpret Gant’s “reasonable to believe” standard, the court found it unnecessary to choose between the two existing interpretations because the officer’s search would survive either standard. Thus, in Kansas, it remains unclear which reasonableness interpretation

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