NCJ Number
97557
Date Published
1984
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This police training video cassette, accompanied by an audio cassette, reenacts the incident that led to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Oliver vs. U.S. and highlights the principles of that decision, which specifies that the fourth amendment does not extend to protect open fields and that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in open fields.
Abstract
Acting on reports that marijuana was being raised on the farm of suspect Oliver, two narcotics agents went to investigate. They drove past the suspect's house to a locked gate with a 'No Trespassing' sign; the agents walked around the gate and found a field of marijuana more than a mile from Oliver's house. Oliver was arrested and indicted for 'manufacture' of a 'controlled substance' in violation of a Federal statute. After a pretrial hearing, the district court suppressed evidence of the discovery of the marijuana fields. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the 'open fields' doctrine should be applied to determine whether the discovery or seizure of the marijuana was valid. In the case of open fields, the general rights of property protected by the common law of trespass have little or no relevance to the application of the fourth amendment, which does not protect the merely subjective expectation of privacy, but only 'those expectations that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable.' A booklet accompanying the cassettes details the facts in the case and highlights the Supreme Court's decision.