The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Skip to main content

Blog

  • Home
  • arrest search and investigation

North Carolina Criminal Law Blog

Category: arrest search and investigation

April 25, 2024

Updated Content Now Available in the Digital Version of Arrest, Search, and Investigation in North Carolina

Jeff Welty

Most readers of this blog are familiar with Arrest, Search, and Investigation in North Carolina. For those who are not, it is a treatise on search and seizure law. It covers stops, arrests, warrantless searches, search warrants, and much more. The most recent (sixth) edition was published in 2021 and was authored by long-time School of Government faculty member Robert L. Farb and research attorney Christopher Tyner. However, the law is never static, and the intervening years have seen major developments concerning issues such as digital searches, strip searches, the recording of interrogations, the automobile exception to the warrant requirement, and more. I’ve updated the treatise, and this post details how to access the new content.

May 28, 2021

United States v. Davis: Fourth Circuit Extends Gant to Containers Generally

Shea Denning

The Fourth Circuit held in United States v. Davis, No. 20-4035, 2021 WL 1826255, ___ F.3d ___ (4th Cir. May 7, 2021) that officers unlawfully searched a suspect’s backpack, which he dropped before he lay on the ground on his stomach, where he remained as he was arrested and his arms were handcuffed behind his back. The case is significant for at least two reasons: (1) The Fourth Circuit extended Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (2009), to searches outside the automobile context; and (2) The court determined that a bag the suspect could have easily reached while unrestrained was not within his reach while he was prone and handcuffed.