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Defendant abandoned his DNA in semen left on a sheet left after a rape

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant had no standing to contest the seizure of evidence from a rape victim of his semen left on sheets he left in her house and then using that to get an order for his DNA. State v. Homz, 2007 Wisc. App. LEXIS 1147 (December 12, 2007)*: P12 Homz also did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the sheet or the semen deposited on the sheet. A reasonable expectation of privacy in property depends, in part, on whether the person exercised dominion over the property. See State v. Whitrock, 161 Wis. 2d 960, 989, 468 N.W.2d 696 (1991). Here, Homz abandoned the sheet and the semen deposited on the sheet. The rest of Homz's argument about the legality of the evidence derived from the sheet is not supported by citation to legal authority...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on January 24, 2008 (boomark / email).