Argue that evidence found in a car must be suppressed because the driver was secured when officers searched it. You have 90 minutes. To: Associate. Use the File and the Library only, then compare your draft with the rubric and the model answer below.
The assignment
To: Associate. From: Aisha Rahman, Public Defender. Re: State v. Tolliver. Our client, Marcus Tolliver, was arrested for driving on a suspended license, and officers searched his car and found a pistol under the seat. Please draft the Argument section of our motion to suppress. Argue that the search of the passenger compartment was not a valid search incident to arrest, that no other exception applies, and respond to the State's argument that the gun would inevitably have been found in an inventory search. Use only the Library, use point headings that state a conclusion, and do not include a statement of facts.
File
Police report excerpt
At 11:20 p.m., Officer Sara Beck stopped Mr. Tolliver's car for a broken taillight. She learned that his license was suspended and arrested him. She handcuffed him and placed him in the back of her patrol car with a second officer, Officer Dan Ortiz, guarding the door. Officer Beck then opened the driver's door and searched the passenger compartment, and found a pistol under the driver's seat. The car was later towed. The department has a written inventory policy for impounded vehicles, but the policy was not followed at the scene, and no inventory list was prepared. Nothing in the report suggests that the license suspension was connected to weapons or drugs.
State's response (excerpt)
The search was incident to a lawful arrest. Alternatively, the gun would inevitably have been found in an inventory search when the car was towed.
Library
Constitution, Article I, section 8 (Franklin)
The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, and no warrant shall issue but on probable cause.
State v. Landry, 44 Fr.3d 75 (Fr. Sup. Ct. 2014)
After arresting a driver for a traffic offense and securing him in a patrol car, officers searched the passenger compartment. Held: suppressed. Police may search a vehicle incident to arrest only if the arrestee is unsecured and within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search, or if it is reasonable to believe that evidence of the offense of arrest might be found in the vehicle. Where the arrest is for a traffic violation such as a suspended license, there is ordinarily no reason to believe evidence of that offense is in the car.
State v. Prather, 50 Fr.3d 301 (Fr. Ct. App. 2018)
The State argued that a gun found in an unauthorized search would inevitably have been discovered in an inventory of the impounded car. Held: the inevitable discovery doctrine did not apply. The State must show by a preponderance that the police, following standard procedures actually in place, would have inevitably discovered the evidence, and an inventory must follow standardized criteria and be conducted for administrative reasons, not as a pretext for investigation. Evidence that an inventory would have been possible is not enough.
What graders look for in this task
Graders score a response against these criteria, and every one of them depends on using only the facts in the File and only the rules in the Library, so treat the list as a check for your draft after the first pass and again before you stop writing.
Uses complete-sentence point headings and no statement of facts
Argues the warrantless search is presumptively unreasonable under Article I, section 8
Applies Landry: Mr. Tolliver was handcuffed in the patrol car with an officer guarding him, so he could not reach the car
Applies the evidence-of-the-offense prong and notes a suspended license leaves nothing to find
Rejects other exceptions such as consent or the automobile exception by noting the State did not claim them
Applies Prather to reject inevitable discovery because no inventory was done or list prepared
Answers that a towing possibility is not enough and that inventories must follow standardized procedures