Search and Seizure - Term Paper Example

Failure to issue of a search warrant or the absence of a search warrant invalidates the evidence searched and therefore necessitates its exclusion as evidence against William. A search warrant is an issue signed by the judge or the magistrate that authorizes the police officers to conduct a search of a definite person, a definite object or material at a definite location and at a specified time. The search warrant will serve as the basis of what the police can search and seize in a person or a property through the specific descriptions indicated in the search warrant.

If the search warrant only specifies to search the bedroom, the police cannot search the living room or the backyard for further evidence. Nor can they search for drugs if the search warrant specifies weapons. Over the years, the court has allowed a number of situations in which a search warrant is not essential. An example of this situation is called the emergency exception. For example, a police is in patrol, if the police hear an alarming shout from the resident while he is on duty, the police can enter the premises to search and arrest the suspect for spousal abuse or child abuse.

But looking in William’s case, a warrantless search can only be valid and admissible if his consent of the search was asked, but it wasn’t, making this physical evidence excludable. This exclusion will not pertain to all evidences because there is a difference between the evidence collected from the Elli’s and Stevens’s townhouses. It is stated in the scenario that “Mrs. Stevens gives the police consent to search the house for any potential evidence that might identify her husband’s killer”.

And it is stated above that a warrantless search can only be valid and admissible if the person in control of the premises consents to the search which Mrs. Stevens approved to. While in William’s case, there was no search warrant issued nor he gave his consent to the