UNREST IN SERENDIP-THE CONTRACTION OF THE MOTOR VEHICLE INVENTORY AS AN EXCEPTION TO THE MAPP RULE

Supreme court standards permit a warrentless search of a motor vehicle which may leave before a warrant is obtained and searches incidential to arise when a police search is delayed and police coustody of the vehicle takes on the nature of a bailment, the lawful custody of one person's property by another. Until the decision in Mozzetti V Superior Court was handed down on April 30, 1971, most lower courts in California would have admitted as evidence whatever the officer might find, so long as he was not looking for it. In this California case, police found marijuana while making an inventory of a car they had removed from the highway pursuant to the California vehicle code. This evidence was held inadmissible by the California supreme court. This article provides an overview of the theories used prior to Mozzetti to justify the police motor vehicle inventory as an exception to the exclusionary rule, and considers some of the constitutional issues raised by the current status of the practice.

• Corporate Authors:

  University of California, San Francisco

  198 McAllister Street
  San Francisco, CA  United States 
• Authors:
  • Houchings, R C
• Publication Date: 1972-2

Media Info

• Pagination: 41 p.
• Serial:
  • Hastings Law Journal
  • Volume: 23
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: University of California, San Francisco

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Evidence; Inventory; Motor vehicles; Police powers; Traffic arrests
• Old TRIS Terms: Searching
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Highways; Law; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00141715
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Criminal Justice Reference Service
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 19 1977 12:00AM