THE FOURTH AMENDMENT AND EXCLUSIONARY RULE

THE FOURTH AMENDMENT AND EXCLUSIONARY RULE
A woman called the police to her home after her daughter was severely beaten earlier in the day by the daughter’s boyfriend. The daughter agreed to use her key to let the officers into the apartment where the man was sleeping. The officers did not seek to obtain either an arrest warrant or a search warrant. After the daughter unlocked the apartment door, the officers entered and found a white substance, which later proved to be cocaine, sitting on a table.

They arrested the sleeping man and charged him with narcotics offenses. The defendant sought to have the drugs excluded from evidence because the officers’ warrantless search was based on permission from the girlfriend who had moved out of the apartment several weeks earlier and therefore had no authority to give the officers permission to enter and search.

1a. As the prosecutor, think about possible exceptions to the exclusionary rule, such as those discussed for the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, to make arguments about why the evidence should not be excluded. Answer needs to be one paragraph long.