Ch 3 Case Study: Crimson Jacket

Case Study Crimson Jacket
Student’s Name
Institution’s Name
Question 1
The residents had raised enough suspicion to the extent that officers put aside their reason and resorted to employing intuition. Officer Smithwick did not have evidence to back up the actions taken rather than sheer intuition. The arrested suspect was just wearing a jacked associated with gang members, and that did not in any way qualify criminality or the actions of Smithwick. Interestingly, Smithwick did not witness any crime get commissioned by the arrested suspect. The acts of the officer impute standing in the streets and wearing crimson jackets to criminality; which is not the case (Kanovitz, 2015). Constitutionally, intuitions need a consensual interaction as opposed to the treatment meted on the suspect by Smithwick.
Question 2
The actions of Smithwick were unwarranted and unconstitutional. The Fourth Amendment outlines circumstances under which search and seizure are permissible. For the operations of Smithwick to stand the test of constitutionality, there needed to exist reasonable suspicion on the involvement of the suspect in criminal activities (Kanovitz, 2015). By observing the defendant and his friends stand in the streets at the time that they did, that was not enough suspicion for the following actions by Smithwick. The defendant was free to leave as he was not under arrest, so he had the liberty to go without saying anything to officer Smithwick (Kanovitz, 2015). The feeling that the young man was a gang member due the crimson jacket was natural, but that did not translate to grant of rights for violation of the man’s Fourth Amendment protections.

Question 3
Evidence collected from the suspect would be inadmissible in a court of law. Unconstitutionally obtained proof cannot go into the record as having been used to convict, hence to avoid acting in vain, the courts reject pieces of evidence collected outside the dictates of the constitution (Kanovitz, 2015).

References
Kanovitz, J. (2015). Constitutional law for criminal justice. New York [u.a.]: Routledge.