Case Library
Criminal Procedure case briefs
20 briefs in 5 topics. Each one gives the facts, issue and holding, IRAC and CREAC versions, key quotes with pinpoint pages and the citation in the book’s form.
Search and seizure
Search and seizure on its own pageKatz v. United States
Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967).
Does the Government's electronic listening to and recording of a person's words in a public telephone booth constitute a search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment when the listening device does not physically penetrate the booth?
Supreme Court of the United States
Schneckloth v. Bustamonte
Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218 (1973).
To show that a consent to search was voluntarily given under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, must the prosecution prove that the person who consented knew he had a right to refuse?
Supreme Court of the United States
United States v. Robinson
United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218 (1973).
After a lawful, full-custody arrest for driving after revocation of a permit, may an officer fully search the arrestee's person, or is he limited to a Terry-type frisk for weapons?
Supreme Court of the United States
Illinois v. Rodriguez
Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177 (1990).
Did the State show that Fischer had common authority over the apartment, so that her consent alone made the warrantless entry valid?
Supreme Court of the United States
Michigan Department of State Police v. Sitz
Mich. Dep’t of State Police v. Sitz, 496 U.S. 444 (1990).
Does a State violate the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments by using highway sobriety checkpoints at which every approaching vehicle is briefly stopped and its driver examined for signs of intoxication?
Supreme Court of the United States
California v. Acevedo
California v. Acevedo, 500 U.S. 565 (1991).
Does the Fourth Amendment require police to get a warrant before opening a closed container in a car's trunk when they have probable cause to search only the container and not the whole car?
Supreme Court of the United States
California v. Hodari D.
California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621 (1991).
When an officer makes a show of authority that the person does not obey, is the person seized under the Fourth Amendment at the time of the show of authority, so that drugs he throws away while fleeing are the fruit of a seizure?
Supreme Court of the United States
Illinois v. Wardlow
Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119 (2000).
Does a person's unprovoked flight upon seeing police officers in an area known for heavy narcotics trafficking give an officer reasonable suspicion to make a brief investigative stop under the Fourth Amendment?
Supreme Court of the United States
Kyllo v. United States
Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27 (2001).
Does the government's use of a thermal-imaging device aimed at a private home from a public street to detect relative amounts of heat within the home constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment?
Supreme Court of the United States
Arizona v. Gant
Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (2009).
Does the search-incident-to-arrest exception to the warrant requirement allow police to search a car after its recent occupant has been arrested, handcuffed, and locked in a patrol car, so that he cannot reach the car?
Supreme Court of the United States
Kentucky v. King
Kentucky v. King, 563 U.S. 452 (2011).
Does the exigent circumstances rule permit a warrantless entry to prevent the destruction of evidence when the police, by knocking on a door and announcing their presence, cause the occupants to try to destroy evidence?
Supreme Court of the United States
Interrogation
Interrogation on its own pageMichigan v. Mosley
Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96 (1975).
Does Miranda create a per se ban on any further questioning by any officer, on any subject, once a person in custody has said he does not want to answer questions?
Supreme Court of the United States
Brewer v. Williams
Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387 (1977).
After judicial proceedings had begun, did Detective Leaming violate Williams' Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment right to counsel by deliberately eliciting incriminating information from him in his lawyers' absence?
Supreme Court of the United States
New York v. Quarles
New York v. Quarles, 467 U.S. 649 (1984).
Is there a public safety exception to the Miranda requirement of warnings before custodial questioning, so that a suspect's answers to questions reasonably prompted by a concern for public safety may be admitted at trial?
Supreme Court of the United States
Oregon v. Elstad
Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. 298 (1985).
Does an earlier failure to give Miranda warnings, when the unwarned statement was voluntary, taint a later confession made after full warnings and a valid waiver, so that the later confession must be suppressed?
Supreme Court of the United States
Dickerson v. United States
Dickerson v. United States, 530 U.S. 428 (2000).
Did Congress have constitutional authority, through 18 U.S.C. §3501, to replace Miranda's warnings requirement with a rule that makes the admissibility of a confession turn only on whether it was voluntary?
Supreme Court of the United States
Berghuis v. Thompkins
Berghuis v. Thompkins, 560 U.S. 370 (2010).
Did Thompkins invoke his right to remain silent by staying largely silent through nearly three hours of questioning, so that police had to end the interrogation?
Supreme Court of the United States
The exclusionary rule
The exclusionary rule on its own pageNix v. Williams
Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431 (1984).
Is evidence of the victim's body and its condition admissible at a second trial under an inevitable discovery exception to the exclusionary rule, where the body would have been found by lawful means even without the police violation?
Supreme Court of the United States
Jury trial
Jury trial on its own pageDuncan v. Louisiana
Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145 (1968).
Does the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment require a State to give a jury trial in criminal cases that would require one if they were tried in federal court under the Sixth Amendment?
Supreme Court of the United States
Sentencing and the jury
Sentencing and the jury on its own pageApprendi v. New Jersey
Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000).
Does the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment require that a factual determination authorizing an increase in the maximum prison sentence for an offense from 10 to 20 years be made by a jury on proof beyond a reasonable doubt?
Supreme Court of the United States