Criminal Procedure Study Tips Forum

[JDO]

Taking CP midterm on Thursday covering 4th amendment. I can take in one notecard front/back. How should I prepare!? Any advice? Questions for me?

[kalvano]

Know whatever the most current law is, likeKentucky v. King for entry into a home. There are tons of cases starting in the 60's that have a rule, but you want to know what the current one is first and foremost.

Also know that there is a difference between searching a home, a car, the trunk of the car, containers in a car, and a person. The car stuff changed recently, an Arizona case I think, from around 2008 or 2009?

[JDO]

Thanks! What type of stuff should I put on the card? The program wants IRAC style. Should I create a template for answering a question?

It will be four short answer questions in one hour.

[kalvano]

I would just put something like:

1) Home Search
a) Case: Kentucky v. King
b) Rule: Relaxed rules for searching homes; now if police hear something that sounds like evidence being destroyed, they can enter without a warrant.
c) Exigent circumstances rule, even if police created the exigent circumstances.


That's short and has all you need to know. Crim Pro is pretty easy to spot issues. Look for things like entering a home, searching a car, a Terry stop, that sort of thing. Make sure to discuss what happens to any evidence gained from the search. Will it be tossed, or were the police not acting willfully bad?

The issues should be petty easy to spot.


Oh, don't forget the rules about drug dogs and using them. Calling them into a traffic stop, if they touch the person being searched, did the handler tell them to alert or was it natural, what kind of training do they have, experience, what's their alert to success rate?

[JDO]

I would just put something like:

1) Home Search
a) Case: Kentucky v. King
b) Rule: Relaxed rules for searching homes; now if police hear something that sounds like evidence being destroyed, they can enter without a warrant.
c) Exigent circumstances rule, even if police created the exigent circumstances.


That's short and has all you need to know. Crim Pro is pretty easy to spot issues. Look for things like entering a home, searching a car, a Terry stop, that sort of thing. Make sure to discuss what happens to any evidence gained from the search. Will it be tossed, or were the police not acting willfully bad?

The issues should be petty easy to spot.


Oh, don't forget the rules about drug dogs and using them. Calling them into a traffic stop, if they touch the person being searched, did the handler tell them to alert or was it natural, what kind of training do they have, experience, what's their alert to success rate?

many thanks!