holding that the police officer’s act of moving stereo equipment “did constitute a ‘search’ separate and apart from the search for the shooter, victims, and weapons that was the lawful objective of his entry into the apartment.... [and that] taking action, unrelated to the objectives of the authorized intrusion, which exposed to view concealed portions of the apartment or its contents, did produce a new invasion of respondent’s privacy unjustified by the exigent circumstance that validated the entry”
How later courts described this case
- holding that the police officer’s act of moving stereo equipment “did constitute a ‘search’ separate and apart from the search for the shooter, victims, and weapons that was the lawful objective of his entry into the apartment.... [and that] taking action, unrelated to the objectives of the authorized intrusion, which exposed to view concealed portions of the apartment or its contents, did produce a new invasion of respondent’s privacy unjustified by the exigent circumstance that validated the entry”
- holding that police officer’s actions in moving stereo equipment came within the purview of the Fourth Amendment as a “search” independent of the search which was justified by the exigent circumstances validating the entry of the apartment and pointing out, “A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable.”
- holding that, when warrant-less entry into apartment to search for shooter was justified based on exigent circumstances, seizure of stereo equipment in plain view in the apartment was illegal because police did not have probable cause to believe the stereo equipment was evidence of a crime
- holding an officer’s “moving of [stereo] equipment . . . constitute[d] a [search] separate and apart from the search for the shooter, victims, and weapons that was the lawful objective of [the police officer’s] entry into the STATE V. NEWBORN 2021-NCCOA-426 Opinion of the Court apartment.”
Written by the judges who cited it.
Distinguished
Distinguished by Commonwealth v. Harvard, 2013 Pa. Super. 64 (2013)
Hicks is distinguishable, however, because Officer Kirby was able to observe the vehicle’s flashing lights in plain view from his lawful vantage point, whereas the police in Hicks had to move the stereo to observe concealed portions of it.
Distinguished by State v. Allen, 216 Ariz. 320 (2007)
480 U.S. 321, 107 S.Ct. 1149, 94 L.Ed.2d 347 (1987), is distinguishable.
Distinguished by United States v. Jones, 176 F. App'x 809 (2006)
Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 325, 107 S.Ct. 1149, 94 L.Ed.2d 347 (1987), is inapposite, because here the movement of the plastic vessel did not “expose[ ] to view concealed portions of the apartment or its contents” or “produce a new invasion of [the defendant’s] privacy unjustified by the exigent circumstance that validated the entry.
Distinguished by State v. Green, Unpublished Decision (12-27-2005), 2005 Ohio 6871 (2005)
o pick up the weapon and lawfully possess it, the decision that officer was entitled to examine both guns for missing serial numbers was not erroneous);State v. Wilson (1998), 93 Wash App. 1025 (there is warrantless seizure exception for officer safety, and where officer is lawfully in possession of gun, officer is lawfully in possession of serial numbers; plain view analysis of Arizona v. Hicks is inapplicable when…
The opinion
Justice White,
concurring.
I write only to emphasize that this case does not present, and we have no occasion to address, the so-called “inadver *330 tent discovery” prong of the plain-view exception to the Warrant Clause. See Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U. S. 443, 469-471 (1971) (plurality opinion). This “requirement” of the plain-view doctrine has never been accepted by a judgment supported by a majority of this Court, and I therefore do not accept Justice O’Connor’s dissent’s assertion that evidence seized in plain view must have been inadvertently discovered in order to satisfy the dictates of the Fourth Amendment. See post, at 334. I join the majority opinion today without regard to the inadvertence of the officers’ discovery of the stereo components’ serial numbers. The police officers conducted a search of respondent’s stereo equipment absent probable cause that the equipment was stolen. It is for this reason that the judgment of the Court of Appeals of Arizona must be affirmed.