Case Name and Citation: California vs Greenwood, (1988)
Court Issuing Decision: United States Supreme Court
Statements of Facts. A court warrant is a legal tool that enables a police officer to seize private property. Law enforcers are not guaranteed authority in seizing private residence and properties without having a search warrant (Kimberly, 2008). Johnny Trouble remains to be a suspect who killed his wife and hence should be requested to record the statement with the authority. The warrant of seizing the trash should be applied immediately where the murder weapon was thrown. It is, however, illegal for a police to work as an undercover employee of the trash collecting firm so that the gun can be seized from the trash.
Procedural history. In the case of California vs Greenwood, police raided and obtained the garbage bag with the trash left on the curb. As the bags were indicative of the narcotics, the police decided to obtain the warrant to search for the narcotics in the house. As there was no narcotic substance or evidence in the trash, the United States court dismissed the case. The reason was that there was no probable evidence that was found or obtained in the trash as it was alleged, implying that there were no reasons for searching the house.
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Issue. Is it illegal to seize the trash without the warrant to search the murder weapons that were alleged to be thrown in the trash?
Holding. The United States Supreme Court decided that without warrant of seizing the trash, and then it would be illegal for undercover police to search for the murder weapon.
Reasoning. Without the warrant of searching, then the court does not officially consider the evidence presented as legal (Daly, 2013). The connection of Jonny Trouble and killing of his wife should be based on the legal evidence. The court would consider suspected murder weapons to be part of the case if the seizure of the murder weapon was undertaken using legal approach.
References
Daly, Y. M. (2013). Independent issuing of search warrants: Damache v DPP. International Journal of Evidence & Proof. Vol. 17 Issue 1, p114-122.
Kimberly, M. (2008). Discovering Arrest Warrants: Intervening Police Conduct and Foreseeability. Yale Law Journal. Vol. 118 Issue 1, p177-185.
