Summary
A U.S. Supreme Court case considering whether valid evidence of crime obtained in a search incident to a valid arrest must be suppressed because of a good-faith mistake by a police officer making an investigatory stop leading up to the arrest. A narcotics detective conducting surveillance of a suspected drug operation suspected that Strieff was involved and stopped him briefly in a convenience store parking lot. When he learned Strieff's identity and discovered there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest, he arrested Strieff. A legal search incident to arrest discovered evidence of drug dealing. The prosecutor conceded that the evidence the detective had to suspect Strieff before the initial stop was not quite sufficient to meet the required threshold of "reasonable suspicion" for such a stop. The state court of appeals held that the outstanding arrest warrant and the legal arrest on that warrant were intervening factors sufficient to make the evidence admissible. The Utah Supreme Court disagreed and reversed. CJLF has filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to go beyond the narrow question presented and examine the more fundamental question of whether a good-faith mistake by an officer who genuinely and reasonably believed he was making a valid stop should require the drastic remedy of excluding valid evidence of crime.
