Summary
Davis v. United States: U. S. Supreme Court decision rejecting a criminal’s claim that his conviction as an ex-felon in possession of a firearm was invalid because the police search that uncovered his gun violated the Exclusionary Rule. The gun was found in Willie Gene Davis’s jacket pocket during a search after a traffic stop. Davis had left his jacket in the car when police asked him to step out. While the search was legal at the time, during Davis’s appeal a new Supreme Court decision changed search rules to prohibit searching belongings left in a vehicle during a traffic stop. After the appeals court upheld Davis’s conviction because the police had followed the law at the time of the search, the Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal. CJLF joined the case to encourage a decision finding that searches such as this one should fall under the “good faith” exception established by United States v. Leon, a high court decision CJLF helped win in 1984. The Court’s holding adopted that reasoning. [CJLF brief in PDF.]
