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MI: Inevitable discovery not applied where police not moving toward getting a search warrant

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Michigan refuses to apply inevitable discovery where the police were doing nothing to get a search warrant because, to hold otherwise, "diminishes the Fourth Amendment and is an incentive for improper or careless police practice." People v. Hyde, 2009 Mich. App. LEXIS 1785 (September 1, 2009): But even under this more expansive application of the inevitable discovery doctrine, we conclude that the evidence here should have been excluded. Although there was a high level of probable cause to obtain a warrant and the same evidence--Hyde's blood--would have been obtained pursuant to the eventual warrant, it is obvious that the police were not in the process of obtaining a warrant when they secured Hyde's invalid consent. Officer Williams did not understand the implied consent statute exception for diabetics and did not attempt to correct his mistake once Hyde's blood sample was obtained...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on September 08, 2009 (boomark / email).