Case_Brief__Arizona_v._Hicks

Case Brief: Arizona v. Hicks Arizona v. Hicks (1987) Facts: A bullet was fired through the floor of the defendant’s apartment into the apartment below and struck an individual who then called the police. Police responded to the incident and went first to the apartment of the origin of the bullet. The defendant, Hicks, was not in the apartment at the time, but officers found and seized three firearms and a stocking-cap mask, which were in plain sight. One of the officers then noticed two sets of stereo equipment that look displaced in the otherwise shabby apartment. After moving two turntables from on top of the equipment, the officer recorded their serial numbers and found them to be property stolen in a recent armed robbery. Mr. Hicks was found and charged with various crimes, released, and now the state appeals. Procedural History: The prosecution argued that since there were exigent circumstances to search the defendant’’s home, any evidence found in ““plain sight”” was seized legally. The defense contested the validity of the search, claiming that the search of the stereo equipment was unwarranted based on its appearance alone and violated the defendant’’s Fourth Amendment search, equipment, court, stereo, found, apartment, seized, , supreme, ruled, officers, officer, hicks, evidence, defendant, arizona, unlawful, two, turntables, state, sight, serial, robbery, probable, police, plain, numbers, first, firearms, exigent, defendant’s, circumstances, charges, cause, bullet, based, appearance, after, yes, warrantless, warrant, violated, various, validity, valid, unwarranted, united, under, turntable, trial, top