Foundations of the Criminal Justice System

Foundations of the Criminal Justice System

Search Warrant Issue Process and Fourth Amendment Requirements

The Search Warrant is known as an order being written and issued from the officials of the court. The warrant bestows the officer full authority to find a person at a particular place while looking for particular objects and to take possession if objects are found with the person. As per the criminal court, the constitution of a specific state can be the basis on which search warrants can be sought. Search Warrants objects comprises of commission of crimes along with stolen goods and other things such as black marketing, narcotics and smuggling.

A proper check between the judicial along with the legislative government branches exist in the form of the Constitution belonging to the US. The US constitution fourth amendment safeguards people from irrational searches and from their valuables being taken away through legal process. Under this amendment a search warrant is issued only once it's determined with surety that a crime is committed by a particular individual. The fourth amendment makes it essential to prohibit evidence in the form of trial being taken from illegal searches being made without verifying an authentic warrant (The Fourth Amendment Warrant Requirement, 2008).

Searches without Warrants

Lawful Arrest Search Incident

The lawful arrest search incident is not restrictive to the issuance of a warrant. This means that if a person gets lawfully arrested, then the police have every right to search the person's surrounding which is reach of the police.

For instance John has been driving while being intoxicated and gets caught up for breaking the signal. A search conducted by the police finds illegal handgun being present in the car's trunk and an 8 bags of heroin being present in the compartment. The compartment is considered to be in the reach of John's wingspan and hence no warrant is required here. As for the gun being found was not within the John's wingspan so it will be excluded as it was based on unreasonable search.

Exception in the form of Plain View

If the police are located in the vicinity from where they can see the evidence, then no warrant is required for the police to act legitimately. Officers don't have the right to enter a violator's backyard, then using the plain view exception to get hold of an alligator who resides in the pool. If the officer has the right to search for marijuana in vicinity, then he can even seize the alligator which is there in the pool (Criminal Justice, 2008).

For instance consider a case where John's neighbor calls a police when he was beating his wife. When the police enter the house under the emergency exception, they see John's gun hanging on the wall. John gets caught up for beating his wife and for holding illegal guns.

Probable Cause & Its Standards

Probable cause should not be based on suspicion and should greatly rely on factual evidence. There are four categories in which probable cause sources cab ...