NCJ Number
130770
Journal
Crime to Court Dated: (July 1991) Pages: 3-8
Date Published
1991
Length
10 pages
Annotation
In the case of California v. Hodari D., the U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether, at the time he dropped the cocaine, Hodari had been "seized" within the meaning of the fourth amendment.
Abstract
The review examines the Court's discussion of seizures generally; addresses the question of whether a show of force constitutes a seizure; considers the Mendenhall rule adopted by the Court, namely, that "A person has been 'seized' within the meaning of the fourth amendment only if, in view of all the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave;" and comments on its decision that police pursuit does not constitute a seizure. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision of the California Court of Appeal that the seizure was unreasonable under the fourth amendment. Assuming that the police officer's pursuit in the present case constituted a "show of authority" enjoining Hodari to halt, since Hodari failed to comply with that injunction, he was not seized until he was tackled. The cocaine abandoned while Hodari was running was, in this case, not the fruit of a seizure, and his motion to exclude evidence of it was denied.