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Coolidge v. New Hampshire | 403 U.S. 443 (1971)
Under the Fourth Amendment, the government can’t conduct unreasonable searches and seizures. Any evidence seized as a result of an unreasonable search or seizure is excluded from trial under the exclusionary rule. That is, unless an exception applies. In Coolidge versus New Hampshire, community outrage over a grizzly crime didn’t excuse unreasonable police conduct.
The body of fourteen-year-old Pamela Mason was found beside a highway in Manchester, New Hampshire. The cause of death was murder. Mason’s murder caused such an uproar in the community that the state’s attorney general personally led a sprawling police investigation and decided to serve as lead prosecutor of the yet-to-be-apprehended killer.
The investigation led police to Edward Coolidge. Coolidge fully cooperated with police at all times during the investigation. He welcomed investigating officers into his home and agreed to sit for a lie-detector test. Over the next few weeks, investigators collected evidence to support warrants to search Coolidge’s house and Pontiac automobile. Pursuant to a New Hampshire statute allowing any justice of the peace to authorize search warrants, the attorney general signed the warrants. Officers then entered Coolidge’s house and arrested him for Mason’s murder. Coolidge’s Pontiac remained in the driveway. A couple hours after Coolidge’s arrest, the Pontiac was towed to the precinct. There, officers searched and vacuumed the car.
Coolidge was tried for Mason’s murder in a New Hampshire trial court. The attorney general introduced trace evidence recovered from Coolidge’s Pontiac to show that Mason had been inside it. Coolidge was convicted, and the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld the jury’s verdict. Coolidge then appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which granted cert.
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