Search_And_Seizure

Search And Seizure Search and Seizure The Fourth Amendment guarantees "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." The Founding Fathers of the constitution knew all too well how the king's soldiers and marshals had abused their power through sweeping searches of American homes before 1776 thus resulting in the creation of the Fourth Amendment. Despite the establishment of the Fourth Amendment, many years existed in which state and federal governments admitted evidence obtained through “unreasonable” search and seizures in criminal trials. The only criteria used by the judge were whether the evidence was incriminating and if it would assist in convicting the defendant. Through the years, the Supreme Court interpretation of the Fourth Amendment has changed due to the development of search and seizure law. The definition of “unreasonable” was first dealt with at the federal level in the 1914 case of Weeks v. United States. Federal law enforcement authorities accused the defendant, Freemont Weeks of using the mail for illegal purposes. After his arrest, the home in which Weeks was staying was searched without a valid search warrant. Evidence in police, search, fourth, evidence, amendment, court, searches, without, supreme, criminal, warrant, state, rule, officer, illegal, one, law, federal, years, weeks, seized, security, rights, probable, exclusionary, defendant, conduct, cause, case, unreasonable, through, suspicion, seizures, seizure, reasonable