NCJ Number
161880
Journal
Crime to Court Police Officer's Handbook Dated: (February 1996) Pages: complete issue
Date Published
1996
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Legal issues discussed are grounds for an investigative detention in the seizure of luggage; the definition of firearm "use" in the commission of a Federal felony; the facts needed to support reasonable suspicion; the detention of a suspect based on reasonable, objective grounds; suspicion that justifies an investigative detention; and death notification.
Abstract
In United States v. Torres (U.S. Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit, 1995), the court held that the seizure and detention of Torres' luggage at a train station was illegal due to the lack of grounds for reasonable suspicion that evidence of a crime was in the luggage. The suspect's agreement to a search of her purse and then a refusal to allow the search of her duffle bag was deemed by the court to be insufficient grounds for detaining the bag. A federal statute provides that whoever uses a firearm to commit any felony for which he may be prosecuted in a court of the United States shall, in addition to the punishment provided for the commission of such felony, be sentenced to a term of imprisonment for not less than 2 nor more than 10 years. The U.S. Supreme Court held on December 6, 1995 (Bailey v. United States), that in order to convict for violation of this statute, the government must prove that the defendant actively used the firearm during and in relation to the felony for which he was convicted; mere possession of the firearm during the criminal act is not sufficient to convict under the statute. The concluding section describes procedures that police officers should use in notifying family members of a victim's death.