BirdFLU says:
July 22, 2010 at 10:10 pm
Interesting about the search warrants. Having written and served a few dozen myself, here’s what I can tell you about a search warrant:
1. It’s not a fishing expedition. You can’t say “This person is friend of Teri’s, so we want to look through their stuff and see what we find.” Via the affidavit in support of a search warrant, you have to explain in detail why you want to search that house. It’s like writing a report to the judge, you have to convince him or her that you have gathered enough information and/or evidence that him/her allowing you to search that house is a reasonable thing to do. The judge has to agree with you. This is a big deal because, by approving the search warrant, the judge is saying you have permission to suspend that person’s Constitutional rights (4th amendment). A judge is staking their reputation and career an your affidavit.
2. You have to list in the search warrant affidavit what you expect to find, why you expect to find it at that location, and how what you find is evidence of a crime.
3. The search warrant has to have reasonable timeliness. You can’t say “This person might have had drugs two months ago.” You have to say why you think that person has drugs right now. What is “reasonable” as far as timeliness depends on the facts of the case. In this case, it’s hard to say because we don’t know what they are looking for.
That’s your search warrant mini-lesson.
….this one stmt. is very interesting to me:
…..2. You have to list in the search warrant affidavit what you expect to find, why you expect to find it at that location, and how what you find is evidence of a crime.