{"id":359,"date":"2014-09-03T05:44:56","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T05:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.massachusettscriminaldefenselawyerblog.com\/2014\/09\/us-supreme-court-to-decide-whe.html"},"modified":"2014-09-03T05:44:56","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T05:44:56","slug":"us-supreme-court-to-decide-whe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/us-supreme-court-to-decide-whe\/","title":{"rendered":"US Supreme Court to decide whether an officer’s mistake in a traffic stop invalidates a drug trafficking charge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear arguments on the constitutionality of traffic stops based on a police officer’s mistaken understanding of the law under the Fourth Amendment. The case, Heien v. North Carolina<\/u><\/a>, stems from the drug trafficking prosecution of the defendant-petitioner, which resulted from a discovery of cocaine during the search of a car pulled over for a burnt brake light.<\/p>\n

The Traffic Stop<\/big><\/strong><\/p>\n

The defendant-petitioner, Mr. Heien, was a passenger in his own vehicle as it was operated by a friend down an interstate highway in North Carolina. A highway patrol officer observed the defendant’s friend operating the vehicle with a stiff and nervous expression, “gripping the steering wheel at a 10 and 2 position, looking straight ahead.” The officer followed the vehicle until he noticed that only one of the two brake lights were functioning. While the state statute only requires that vehicles have only one functioning break light, the officer interpreted the statute incorrectly and issued a warning to the defendant, who was the vehicle’s owner. The officers then asked the defendant if he could search the vehicle, and the defendant consented. After a forty minute search of the vehicle, the officer discovered a plastic sandwich bag containing cocaine. The defendant was charged and convicted on the charge of trafficking cocaine.<\/p>\n

Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear arguments on the constitutionality of traffic stops based on a police officer’s mistaken understanding of the law under the Fourth Amendment. The case, Heien v. North Carolina, stems from the drug trafficking prosecution of the defendant-petitioner, which resulted from a discovery of cocaine during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nUS Supreme Court to decide whether an officer's mistake in a traffic stop invalidates a drug trafficking charge — Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog — September 3, 2014<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear arguments on the constitutionality of traffic stops based on a police officer's mistaken — September 3, 2014\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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