Constitutional Law
Appeals Court Says Cellphone Seizure Violated Suspect’s Fourth Amendment Rights
A federal appeals court has ruled that a defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated when a policeman followed the suspect into his mother’s home and seized a cellphone containing nude photographs of a 14-year-old girl.
On Monday, the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that evidence from the cellphone should have been suppressed, the Associated Press reports. The court opinion said the officer did not have consent to enter the home, and as a result the cellphone seizure violated the Fourth Amendment.
The suspect, Frankie Joe Little, had appealed after pleading guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor and receiving a 180 month sentence.
