NCJ Number
102539
Date Published
1984
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Mincey v. Arizona (1978) to illustrate the search warrant requirement for crime scenes in private residences and the application of Miranda Guidelines to the interrogation of a hospital patient.
Abstract
The decision focused on the legality of a warrantless 4-day search of Mincey's apartment, where a police officer was shot while attempting to arrest Mincey on a drug charge. Another focus of the Court's decision was a police officer's questioning of Mincey in his hospital bed (he was shot in the incident) even though Mincey told the officer he did not want to answer any questions. Mincey was tried and convicted at a single trial for murder, assault, and narcotics offenses. Mincey's attorney claimed in a pretrial suppression hearing and afterwards on appeal that the crime scene evidence should have been excluded because of the failure to obtain a warrant and that Mincey's responses in the hospital interrogation should have been excluded because they were not voluntary. The Arizona Supreme Court upheld the legality of the crime scene search and the voluntariness of Mincey's statements. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case, holding that the 'murder scene exception' created by the Arizona Supreme Court is inconsistent with the fourth and 14th amendments and that due process of law requires that Mincey's statements cannot be used against him at trial. 23 notes and 7 references.