Mapp v. Ohio

Mapp v. Ohio
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 29, 1961 Decided June 19, 1961
Full case name	Dollree Mapp v. State of Ohio
Citations	367 U.S. 643 (more) 81 S. Ct. 1684; 6 L. Ed. 2d 1081; 1961 U.S. LEXIS 812; 86 Ohio L. Abs. 513; 16 Ohio Op. 2d 384; 84 A.L.R.2d 933
Prior history	Defendant convicted, Cuyahoga County, Ohio Court of Common Pleas; affirmed, Ohio Court of Appeals; affirmed, 166 N.E.2d 387 (Ohio 1960)
Subsequent history	Rehearing denied, 368 U.S. 871 (1961)
Holding
The Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, as applied to the states through the Fourteenth, excludes unconstitutionally obtained evidence from use in criminal prosecutions. Ohio Supreme Court reversed.
Court membership
Chief Justice Earl Warren Associate Justices Hugo Black · Felix Frankfurter William O. Douglas · Tom C. Clark John M. Harlan II · William J. Brennan, Jr. Charles E. Whittaker · Potter Stewart
Case opinions
Majority	Clark, joined by Warren, Black, Douglas, Brennan
Concurrence	Black
Concurrence	Douglas
Concurrence	Stewart
Dissent	Harlan, joined by Frankfurter, Whittaker
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amends. IV, XIV
This case overturned a previous ruling or rulings
Wolf v. Colorado

Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961), was a landmark case in criminal procedure, in which the United States Supreme Court decided that evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against "unreasonable searches and seizures," may not be used in state law criminal prosecutions in state courts, as well, as had previously been the law, as in federal criminal law prosecutions in federal courts. The Supreme Court accomplished this by use of a principle known as selective incorporation; in Mapp this involved the incorporation of the provisions, as interpreted by the Court, of the Fourth Amendment which are applicable only to actions of the federal government into the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause which is applicable to actions of the states.

Background of the case

While conducting a search for an accused bombing suspect, Ohio police received a tip that the suspect was hiding at Mapp's home in Cleveland, Ohio. Police came to her house and Mapp refused to answer the door, leading police officers to enter by force. After forcing entry, Mapp then demanded to see a search warrant. She took possession of the document, placing it underneath her clothing. Based on a charge of accused belligerence, the police handcuffed Mapp and proceeded to search the home. The search discovered illegal betting slips and several obscene books. The police charged Mapp with possession of obscene materials, which was a criminal offense in Ohio at the time.

Circumstances of the case

Dollree (pronounced doll ray, also known as Dolly or Doll Rae) Mapp (1923/24-2014), the divorced ex-wife of boxer Jimmy Bivins and ex-girlfriend of light heavyweight champion Archie Moore, was an employee in the illegal gambling rackets dominated by Cleveland rackets kingpin Shon Birns. On May 23rd, 1957, police officers in Cleveland, Ohio, received an anonymous tip by phone that Virgil Ogletree, a numbers operator who was wanted for questioning in the bombing of rival numbers racketeer and future boxing promoter Don King's home three days earlier, might be found at Mapp's house, as well as illegal betting slips and equipment employed in the "California Gold" numbers operation set up by Mapp's boyfriend Edward Keeling. Three officers went to the home and asked for permission to enter, but Mapp, after consulting her lawyer by telephone, refused to admit them without a search warrant. Two officers left, and one remained, watching the house from across the street.

Three hours later, four cars full of police arrived and knocked on the door but when she didn't answer, they stormed the house. Mapp asked to see the alleged warrant and snatched it from an officer, putting it in her clothes. The officers struggled with Mapp and eventually recovered the piece of paper which was not seen by her or her lawyers again, and was not introduced as evidence in any of the ensuing court proceedings. When asked about the warrant during oral argument at the Supreme Court, the Cleveland prosecutor arguing the case cautiously deflected the question, which the court did not press.

As the search of Mapp's second-floor, 2-bedroom apartment began, police handcuffed her for being belligerent. The police searched the house thoroughly, and discovered Ogletree, who was subsequently cleared on the bombing charge, hiding in the apartment of the downstairs tenant, Minerva Tate. In the search of Mapp's apartment and in a footlocker in the basement of the house police found a quantity of "California Gold" betting slips and paraphernalia. They also found a pistol and a small quantity of pornographic books and pictures which Mapp stated a previous tenant named Morris Jones had left behind.

Mapp was arrested, charged, and cleared on a misdemeanor charge of possessing numbers paraphernalia; but several months later, after she refused to testify against Shon Birns, Edward Keeling and their associates at their trial that October for the attempted shakedown of Don King, she was prosecuted for possession of the books, found guilty at a 1958 trial of "knowingly having had in her possession and under her control certain lewd and lascivious books, pictures, and photographs in violation of 2905.34 of Ohio's Revised Code", and sentenced to one to seven years in prison. She immediately filed an appeal while out on bail and never served a day of the sentence.

Decision

The U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 in favor of Mapp. The Court overturned the conviction, and six justices found that the States were bound to exclude evidence seized in violation of the 4th Amendment.

See also

• United States Bill of Rights
• Fruit of the poisonous tree
• Exclusionary rule

External links

• Archival source documents relating to the Mapp case at Cleveland Memory
• Dollree Mapp, Who Defied Police Search in Landmark Case, Is Dead - New York Times