Dollree Mapp Case Study

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May 23, 1957, three Cleveland police officers arrived at Miss Dollree Mapp’s residence in order to inform her that a person was hiding out in the home, which was wanted for questioning in connection with a recent bombing, and that there was a large amount of policy paraphernalia being hidden in the home. Miss Dollree Mapp and her daughter from a previous marriage lived on the top floor of a two-story home. Upon their arrival to the house, three police officers knocked on the door and demanded entrance, but Miss Dollree Mapp, after calling her attorney, refused to allow them to enter without a search warrant. They advised their headquarters of the situation and stayed at the house until other police officers arrived. Police officers obtain search…show more content…
When Miss Dollree Mapp did not come to the door immediately, at least one of the several doors to the house was forcibly opened and the police officer gained entry. Meanwhile Miss Dollree Mapp's attorney arrived, but the police officers, having secured their own entry, and continuing in their defiance of the law, would not permit him to see Miss Dollree Mapp nor to enter the house. It appeared that Miss Dollree Mapp was halfway down the stairs from the upper floor to the front door when the officers, in this highhanded manner, broke into the house. She demanded to see the search warrant. A paper, claimed to be the warrant, was held up by one of the police officers. She grabbed the “warrant” and placed it in her bosom. A struggle ensued in which the police officers recovered the piece of paper and as a result of which they handcuffed her because she had been "belligerent" in resisting their official rescue of the "warrant" from her person. Being rough with Miss Dollree Mapp, a police officer "grabbed" her, "twisted her hand," and she pleaded with him because "it was hurting.", in handcuffs, Miss Dollree Mapp was then forcibly taken upstairs to her bedroom where the police officers searched a dresser, a chest of drawers, a closet and a couple of suitcases. They also looked into a photo album book and through personal papers belonging to Miss Dollree Mapp. The…show more content…
Colorado (1949), in which this Court did indeed hold "that, in a prosecution in a State court for a State crime, the Fourteenth Amendment does not forbid the admission of evidence obtained by an unreasonable search and seizure." Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendments states “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”. The Supreme Court has ruled that any state law that abridges freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to trial by jury, the right to council, the right against self-incrimination, the right against unreasonable searches and seizures, or the right against cruel and unusual punishments will be invalidated under section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment. This holding is called the Incorporation

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