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Ruling Limits Cavity Searches
The AP
3.26.08
ALBANY (AP) — The state’s top court ruled on Tuesday that the police can strip-search someone they had arrested and look inside his or her body cavities without a warrant if they have reason to suspect that concealed evidence is inside. But they cannot physically search a cavity without getting a court warrant, the court ruled.
In a 5-to-2 ruling by the New York Court of Appeals, Judge Victoria A. Graffeo noted that the United States Supreme Court had ruled that warrantless strip searches were legal, as were visual inspections for pretrial detainees after their visitors had left. She wrote that “reasonableness” was the “ultimate touchstone” for the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches.
“We conclude that a visual body inspection may be conducted if the police have a factual basis supporting a reasonable suspicion that the arrestee has evidence concealed inside a body cavity and the search is conducted in a reasonable manner,” Judge Graffeo wrote for the majority, emphasizing that the search cannot be routine. “There must be particular, individualized facts known to the police that justify subjecting an arrestee to these procedures.”
In a separate 4-to-3 ruling, the majority concluded that the police must get a warrant to remove a protruding object or conduct a manual cavity search, except in an emergency.
The case before the court involved Azim Hall of New York, who was arrested on Feb. 8, 2005, on charges that he sold two pieces of crack cocaine outside a grocery store. After his conviction, Mr. Hall filed an appeal, arguing that the police had conducted an illegal search by pulling a string, attached to a plastic bag containing crack cocaine, that was dangling from his rectum. A State Supreme Court judge dismissed the indictment, but the Appellate Division reversed that.
The Court of Appeals ordered the indictment dismissed again, concluding that the police had the right to strip and inspect Mr. Hall but had conducted an “unreasonable body search.”
Link!
The AP
3.26.08
ALBANY (AP) — The state’s top court ruled on Tuesday that the police can strip-search someone they had arrested and look inside his or her body cavities without a warrant if they have reason to suspect that concealed evidence is inside. But they cannot physically search a cavity without getting a court warrant, the court ruled.
In a 5-to-2 ruling by the New York Court of Appeals, Judge Victoria A. Graffeo noted that the United States Supreme Court had ruled that warrantless strip searches were legal, as were visual inspections for pretrial detainees after their visitors had left. She wrote that “reasonableness” was the “ultimate touchstone” for the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches.
“We conclude that a visual body inspection may be conducted if the police have a factual basis supporting a reasonable suspicion that the arrestee has evidence concealed inside a body cavity and the search is conducted in a reasonable manner,” Judge Graffeo wrote for the majority, emphasizing that the search cannot be routine. “There must be particular, individualized facts known to the police that justify subjecting an arrestee to these procedures.”
In a separate 4-to-3 ruling, the majority concluded that the police must get a warrant to remove a protruding object or conduct a manual cavity search, except in an emergency.
The case before the court involved Azim Hall of New York, who was arrested on Feb. 8, 2005, on charges that he sold two pieces of crack cocaine outside a grocery store. After his conviction, Mr. Hall filed an appeal, arguing that the police had conducted an illegal search by pulling a string, attached to a plastic bag containing crack cocaine, that was dangling from his rectum. A State Supreme Court judge dismissed the indictment, but the Appellate Division reversed that.
The Court of Appeals ordered the indictment dismissed again, concluding that the police had the right to strip and inspect Mr. Hall but had conducted an “unreasonable body search.”
Link!
