ARREST - SEARCHES AND SEIZURES - REASONABLE GROUND FOR ARREST WITHOUT WARRANT

Authors

Michigan Law Review, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

The defendant was indicted for receiving and concealing seventy grains of heroin unlawfully imported into the United States. The government proposed to introduce the seized drug in evidence at the trial of the defendant. It appeared that the federal narcotic agent who had made the arrest without a warrant had seen the defendant enter and leave a grocery store. in which narcotic transactions were known to have taken place, He knew the defendant to be an addict, and immediately preceding the arrest, in accordance with a prearranged code, he had been informed by a companion of the defendant, known to be reliable, that the defendant would have narcotics in her possession. Held, the defendant's motion to suppress the evidence was sustainable, for the arrest and the subsequent search and seizure without a warrant were unlawful since there was no showing that the officer had reasonable grounds to believe that a felony had been committed, other than information received from a third person, which itself was not more than mere speculation or guesswork. United States v. Clark, (D. C. Mo. 1939) 29 F. Supp. 138.

Recommended Citation

Michigan Law Review, ARREST - SEARCHES AND SEIZURES - REASONABLE GROUND FOR ARREST WITHOUT WARRANT, 38 Mich. L. Rev. 892 (1940).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol38/iss6/9