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VI: Independent source doctrine overcame Miranda violation

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant was arrested without probable cause and should have been Mirandized before he made a statement. A citizen's report of the smell of a decomposing body had been separately received, and that produced the body. People v. Castillo, 2008 V.I. LEXIS 1 (February 5, 2008): From the circumstances presented, the Court finds beyond cavil that law enforcement would have inevitably discovered and did in fact independently discover Laquina Hennis' body. Although the officers had searched the 8th Street structure(s) several times, a citizen's report on April 11, 2007, complaining of a stench emanating from the shed adjacent to the dwelling occupied by the Defendant, led to the officers' return and subsequent recovery of the body. It was therefore only a matter of time before the victim's body would have been inevitably, but independently found, particularly given that the investigation of the missing child involved multiple agencies from territorial and federal levels...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 10, 2008 (boomark / email).