1. Police obtain a search warrant for Mary's house to search for cocaine. While executing the search warrant, the police look in a closet and find a sawed-off shotgun. The gun will be:

Question

1. Police obtain a search warrant for Mary's house to search for cocaine. While executing the search warrant, the police look in a closet and find a sawed-off shotgun. The gun will be:

A. admissible if it was immediately apparent as contraband.

B. admissible only if the police found cocaine too.

C. admissible, but only if Mary gave consent to the search of the closet.

D. inadmissible, as the gun was not listed on the search warrant.

is it A

Answer 1

This is still controversial, and is litigated again and again. It's usually interpreted as A, but not always.

Answer 2

No, the correct answer is D. The sawed-off shotgun would be considered inadmissible as evidence because it was not listed on the search warrant. The search warrant only authorizes the police to search for cocaine, so any evidence found during the search that is not related to cocaine would generally be considered outside the scope of the warrant and therefore inadmissible.

Answer 3

Yes, the correct answer is A. The sawed-off shotgun found in the closet would be admissible if it was immediately apparent as contraband. This is based on the "plain view doctrine," which allows police to seize items that are in plain view during a lawful search, even if the item was not mentioned in the search warrant. In this case, the police were legally present in Mary's house with a search warrant for cocaine, and they happened to come across the shotgun in the closet. Since the shotgun was immediately apparent as contraband, they would be allowed to seize it and potentially use it as evidence.