(Download) "State v. Carter" by Supreme Court of Montana # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: State v. Carter
- Author : Supreme Court of Montana
- Release Date : January 09, 2005
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 64 KB
Description
In this appeal from a conviction of unlawful possession of a firearm, we consider what level of suspicion must precede police use of a drug-detection dog to sniff outside a bank of storage units within a fenced self-storage facility. The district court denied the motion of appellant Andre Lashon Carter to suppress the evidence of a firearm discovered when police, acting pursuant to a search warrant that was based in large part on the results of a dog sniff, searched his rented storage unit. The court of appeals affirmed, holding that the dog sniff was not a "search" because appellant had no expectation of privacy in the "semi-public" area outside his unit. Although we conclude that the dog sniff was not a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, we hold that the dog sniff was a "search" within the meaning of Article I, Section 10 of the Minnesota Constitution. Because the governmental interest in the use of drug-detection dogs to aid law enforcement is significant, we hold that a dog sniff is an unreasonable search unless police have at least reasonable, articulable suspicion of criminal activity before conducting it. And because the police did not have such suspicion here, and there was no probable cause to issue the warrant without the results of the dog sniff, we reverse appellants conviction and grant a new trial.