Deck 4: Criminal Investigatory Search Warrants

Question 1

Proper execution of an anticipatory search warrant is dependent upon _____.

A) a triggering condition
B) reasonable suspicion
C) reasonable suspicion and a triggering condition
D) witness testimony and reasonable suspicion

Answer 1

A

Question 2

A police officer requests and is granted a search warrant for a particular residence. The search warrant specifies that the search is not to be commenced until after a UPS delivery truck appears at the residence on a particular date to drop off a package. This is a(n):

A) administrative search warrant
B) anticipatory search warrant
C) conditional search warrant
D) general search warrant

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Legal issues surrounding search and seizures typically fall under the ____ Amendment?

A) First
B) Fourth
C) Eight
D) Fifth

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which description lacks sufficient particularity to satisfy the Fourth Amendment?

A) Various obscene books, magazines and video tapes
B) Various instruments and tools used in perpetrating burglary, which were instrumentalities of such crime
C) All marijuana located on the premises lities of such crime
D) Homemade pipe bomb

Question 5

To qualify to issue a warrant, the judicial officer must be _____.

A) biased and attached
B) biased and detached
C) neutral and semi-detached
D) neutral and detached

Question 6

Under rule 41(c) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, seizure is limited to _____.

A) items other than biologicals
B) evidence of a crime
C) contraband such as drugs
D) nontestimonial evidence

Question 7

Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443 (1971) found that a _____ is not a neutral and detached judicial officer.

A) justice of the peace
B) clerk of the court
C) state attorney general
D) magistrate

Question 8

Officers executing a search warrant for a particularly described premises may not search _____.

A) other buildings which may be on that land
B) vehicles which may be parked on that land
C) people on the premises without further justification
D) the open fields around the land

Question 9

Which statement about a Franks hearing is true?

A) The purpose of the hearing is to allow a criminal defendant to challenge the veracity of an affidavit used by the police to obtain a search warrant.
B) A simple allegation of falsity and/or material omission is insufficient to trigger (initiate) a Franks hearing.
C) The defendant bears the burden of proving, beyond a reasonable doubt, that an application for a warrant contained false statements that were knowingly or recklessly made, or alternatively that material information was knowingly or recklessly omitted from the warrant application.
D) All criminal suspects are entitled to a Franks hearing.

Question 10

Probable cause to search has two requirements that probable cause to arrest does not: _____.

A) that the information must not be stale and particularity regarding place and items
B) that the information must not be stale and that the applying officer must have applied Aguilar/Spinelli
C) that the information was NOT from an informant and particularity regarding place and items
D) reasonable suspicion and particularity regarding place and items

Question 11

Which description does not satisfy particularity requirements?

A) VHS videotape, labeled: 349, titled: A. Pretty Pet
B) RCA television set, stolen from 35 Main St., Canton, NY
C) Manufacturer unknown, model unknown, .357 Magnum revolver, stainless steel, name "Lisa" engraved on stock
D) All cannabis plants normal

Question 12

What were all-purpose warrants referred to in early colonial America?

A) Criminal warrants
B) Star chamber warrants
C) Writs of assistance
D) Writs of mandamus

Question 13

For Fourth Amendment purposes, a seizure of property occurs whenever there is a(n) _____.

A) invasion of a constitutionally protected area
B) interference with a person's possessory interests in that property
C) interference with a person's reasonable expectation of privacy
D) infringement on a person's house, papers, and effects

Question 14

In a situation where an officer acts in reckless disregard for the truth when applying for a warrant: _____.

A) the entire warrant will automatically be deemed constitutionally defective
B) some clauses from the deficient parts of the warrant may be severed or redacted
C) the officer will automatically be civilly liable in any Section 1983 claim that is filed
D) the admissibility of the evidence will not be impacted because the exclusionary rule does not apply to this situation

Question 15

The neutral and detached requirement for the issuing authority means that the issuer must not _____.

A) have anything to gain or lose in the outcome
B) be related to the officer
C) have had business relations with anyone involved in the case
D) care about the probable cause

Question 16

A general warrant _____.

A) lacks specificity in the person or place to be searched
B) is directed to a specific officer or department
C) may be signed by the clerk of the court rather than a magistrate
D) can be used only against smugglers

Question 17

A search warrant is _____.

A) issued by the police
B) issued in the name of the proper judicial authority
C) directed to any officer of the court
D) commands the property be brought before the authority

Question 18

The information that a law enforcement officer swears to in an affidavit (or in live testimony) to establish probable cause for a warrant must be "truthful in the sense that the information put forth is" _____.

A) objectively established as true
B) believed or appropriately accepted by the affiant as true
C) sworn to be true by at least two independent sources
D) established as true by a reasonable person test

Question 19

Probable cause must be based on _____.

A) Aguilar/Spinelli
B) fact
C) reasonable suspicion
D) proof beyond a reasonable doubt

Question 20

The execution of a search warrant must normally be _____.

A) immediately after issuance
B) initiated during daytime
C) discontinued after dark
D) done in the presence of the occupant(s)

Question 21

Officers must follow knock and announce requirements even if they believe no one is in the premises to be searched.

Question 22

A search warrant commands that the officer bring any seized property before the judicial authority named in the warrant.

Question 23

Officers execute a search warrant to search a dwelling for narcotics and find several persons on the premises. They find no illegal substances. The officers' most legally sound course of action is _____.

A) without further justification, search the people for the drugs.
B) acquire additional probable cause that the people have the drugs on them, then search them for the drugs.
C) without additional justification, search the owner for the drugs but not the others.
D) without further justification, search everyone for weapons. /span>

Question 24

After knocking and announcing their presence and purpose and waiting a few moments, officers executing a search warrant for stolen property hear no sound. The officers _____.

A) may then break in without further process
B) must wait for a supervisor's approval to break in
C) must make a further investigation to ensure no one is home
D) must return when someone is home

Question 25

A search warrant can become invalid because the probable cause upon which it is based has become stale.

Question 26

If a portion of a warrant is deficient with respect to the probable cause and particularity requirements then the entire warrant will be judged to be constitutionally invalid.

Question 27

An officer about to execute a search warrant has a sudden feeling that the occupants might resist, making the officer fearful. The officer has no facts or circumstances to support this belief. The most legally sound course of action would be to _____.

A) break in without notice
B) surreptitiously enter
C) still knock and announce
D) get permission from a supervisor to break in

Question 28

Officers have a warrant to search a dwelling for three shotguns stolen in a burglary of a gun store. In executing the warrant, they discover many other firearms not described on the warrant, some of which they recognize immediately as having been taken in the same burglary. The officers have legal grounds to seize ______.

A) all the other firearms immediately
B) only the shotguns described on the warrant
C) the shotguns described on the warrant and may examine all the other firearms to determine if they are stolen property
D) the shotguns described on the warrant and the other firearms they recognize as stolen, but may not examine or seize the other firearms

Question 29

Relating to arrest and search warrants, the doctrine of severability _____.

A) enables total suppression of evidence in instances where a warrant is deficient
B) allows co-defendants to be charges separately
C) allows a defendant with multiple counts to be tried separately on each count
D) allows problematic clauses of a warrant to be redacted while preserving the remaining clauses

Question 30

In the Federal system, the codified procedures and rules relating to search and seizure are found _____.

A) scattered throughout the codes of the U.S. code
B) scattered throughout the various court cases related to criminal procedure
C) in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 41
D) in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 21

Question 31

In every jurisdiction, the judicial officers authorized to issue a search warrant are the same officers authorized to issue an arrest warrant.

Question 32

The number of hours a search lasted is the major factor used to determine the reasonableness of the duration of a search.

Question 33

The most legally sound action for officers about to execute a search warrant for narcotics in a dwelling is to _____.

A) break in without notice
B) enter through unlocked windows or doors then announce their presence
C) disregard knock and announce since the warrant is for narcotics
D) follow knock and announce requirements

Question 34

The freshness of the information forming the basis for probable cause is more important in applications for search warrants than for arrest warrants.

Question 35

In the case of Franks v. Delaware, the Court determined that if a search warrant was issued based on some inadvertent exaggeration by the applying officer of the factual basis for the warrant, the seized items must be suppressed as evidence.

Question 36

To obtain a valid anticipatory search warrant, _____

A) there must be a fair probability that specific contraband will be found if the triggering event occurs and a fair probability that the triggering event will in fact occur
B) the police must have corroborated information from at least two different informants
C) police must have sufficient basis to believe that the evidence cannot be obtained any other way
D) the police must have established reasonable suspicion

Question 37

For police to legally search areas that are appurtenant (incident to, belonging to, or going with the residence listed on the warrant):_____.

A) the appurtenant areas must be explicitly stated in the language of the warrant
B) the items that are the listed in the warrant must be capable of storage in the appurtenant areas
C) the appurtenant areas must be in plain view
D) the owner of the premises must consent tenant areas

Question 38

If a mistake is made in specifying the address on a search warrant, the warrant is automatically invalid.

Question 39

Officers have a warrant authorizing search for narcotics allegedly being sold in a tavern. When they execute the warrant, there is a bartender and eighteen customers. Select the officers' most legally sound course of action.

A) The officers may search the premises and everyone in it for drugs.
B) The officers may search the premises for drugs and frisk the people for weapons.
C) The officers may search the premises for drugs, but need specific probable cause for each person they want to search for drugs or frisk for weapons.
D) The officers may search the premises for drugs, but need specific probable cause for each person they want to search for drugs and specific, articulable suspicion of danger to frisk for weapons.

Question 40

The Fourth Amendment sets probable cause as the minimum standard for issuing warrants.

Question 41

What is the purpose and rationale underlying the concept of an anticipatory search warrant?

Question 42

Select an item within the room you are currently in. Write a description sufficient to satisfy the particularity requirement of the Fourth Amendment.

Question 43

The person swearing-out an affidavit is referred to as the ___________.

Question 44

A ___________ of property occurs when there is some meaningful interference with an individual's possessory interests in that property.

Question 45

What is the purpose and nature of Rule 41?

Question 46

To avoid the severity of total repression of evidence when a small mistake is made in a search warrant, the courts have adopted partial suppression, better known as ___________ or severability.

Question 47

Outline the process of applying for a search warrant. Include the considerations a law enforcement officer must be aware of if (s)he is to be successful in obtaining a search warrant.

Question 48

Explain the difference between search warrants in colonial America and search warrants that are issued today.

Question 49

Provides examples which illustrate circumstances in which law enforcement authorities may be legally authorized to make a "sneak and peak" covert entry into private property. Explain the use of "sneak and peak" warrants by law enforcement prior to the passing of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Question 50

What rule of law developed from the Segura case? What potential impact do you see for police officers? Explain your reasoning.

Question 51

Provide examples that would illustrate a minimum of three different constitutional limits on the seizure of items found in a search.

Question 52

A ___________ is used to allow a criminal suspect to challenge the sufficiency of the information upon which an affidavit supporting a warrant is based.

Question 53

A search warrant based on an affidavit showing probable cause that evidence of a certain crime will be located at a specific place in the future is known as a(n) ___________ search warrant.

Question 54

A(n) ___________ search allows items discovered during the execution of a covert entry warrant to be seized if there is a "reasonable necessity for the seizure."

Question 55

Even though the search warrant on its face is still valid, the executing officer must nevertheless determine if the probable cause has become ___________ before beginning the search.

Question 56

A(n) ___________ condition is a condition precedent, other than the passage of time, which will establish probable cause to conduct a search and/or seizure.

Question 57

Regardless of the justification for a delay, warrants must be executed before probable cause dissipates, a process commonly referred to as going ___________.

Question 58

A(n) ___________ search warrant specifically authorizes officers to enter unoccupied premises, search for specified evidence, and then leave-without seizing the evidence they find, and without leaving a trace that an entry has been made.

Question 59

What is meant by the "curtilage" around a home? Briefly explain what is meant by appurtenant property.

Question 60

What is "knock and announce". Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of such a rule.