A 213 Pound Fourth Amendment Victory

In this day and age, it is not unusual for rights to be subsumed by the State in order to support their various “wars,” and the “war” on drugs is a prime example of this.

Illegal search and seizures, in the name of the “war” on drugs are quite normal, complete with rather frequent dog killings, just take a stroll through Radley Balko’s site and you’ll find quite a tally of dead dogs.

Occasionally, though, a judge will stand up and provide a badly needed backhand to the State when they have overstepped their authority.

When a state trooper pulled over 64-year-old Robert Joseph Whitcomb’s minivan on a Nebraska highway last October, he found enough densely-packed marijuana hidden inside to equal the weight of a large man.

The 213-pound discovery would have been enough to send the Wyoming man, a convicted felon, back to prison.

But a seemingly innocuous police mistake in checking the wrong license plate database—the basis for stopping Whitcomb’s rented Toyota Sienna after a dispatcher reported an expired plate—was all the evidence a Lancaster County, Neb. judge needed to gut the state’s case against Whitcomb.

Good for that judge.

Lawyer: Release of Wyoming man who had 213 pounds of marijuana in van is important Fourth Amendment victory

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/18 at 10:17 AM

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below:


Next entry: Lack of Principles, Peter J. Wallison

Previous entry: I'd Say the French Need to Re-evaluate What Is Most Vital

<< Back to main