Mapp v. Ohio 1961

• Author: Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw
• Pages: 444-448

Contenidos

• Breaking and Entering.
• Law Over Anarchy.
• Suggestions for further reading.

Page 444

Appellant: Dollree Mapp

Appellee: State of Ohio

Appellant's Claim: That convicting her with evidence obtained during an illegal search violated the Fourth Amendment.

Chief Lawyer for Appellant: A.L. Kearns

Chief Lawyer for Appellee: Gertrude Bauer Mahon

Justices for the Court: Hugo Lafayette Black, William J. Brennan, Jr., Tom C. Clark, William O. Douglas, Potter Stewart, Earl Warren

Justices Dissenting: Felix Frankfurter, John Marshall Harlan II, Charles Evans Whittaker

Date of Decision: June 19, 1961

Decision: The Supreme Court reversed Mapp's conviction.

Significance: Until Mapp, states did not have to obey the exclusionary rule, which prevents the government from using evidence its gets during an illegal search and seizure. By forcing states to obey the exclusionary rule, the Supreme Court strengthened the Fourth Amendment's protection of privacy for Americans.

A persons privacy is protected by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Fourth Amendment requires law enforcement officers to get a warrant to search a house or other private place for evidence of a

Page 445

crime. In Weeks v. United States (1914), the U.S. Supreme Court created the exclusionary rule. That rule prevents the federal government from convicting a defendant with evidence the government finds during an illegal search without a warrant.

Associate Justice Tom C. Clark. Courtesy of the Supreme Court of the United States.

In Wolf v. Colorado (1949), the Supreme Court said state and local governments must obey the Fourth Amendment by getting a warrant to conduct a search. The Court also said, however, that the exclusionary rule does not apply to the states. That allowed state prosecutors to use evidence seized during illegal searches without warrants. Mapp v. Ohio gave the Supreme Court the chance to overrule Wolf and apply the exclusionary rule to the states.

Breaking and Entering

On May 23, 1957, police officers in Cleveland, Ohio, had information that a bombing suspect was hiding in the house of Dollree Mapp. They also thought the house had illegal gambling equipment. When the police went to Mapp's house to search it, however, Mapp called her attorney and then refused to let the police in without a search warrant.

The police stationed themselves outside Mapp's home to watch the place. Three hours later they sought entrance again. When Mapp did not

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