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Hey guys, it's Anthony Bandiero Here attorney and senior legal instructor for blue to gold law enforcement training, bringing you another roadside chat from the studio. Alright, today's question comes from an officer in Utah, and the officer basically asked, do we need a warrant for a death investigation? Okay, well, let's, let's kind of go through this. So the officer says, Look, we get into the house because we have exigency. You know that there's somebody the SES in the home, you know, you know, let's say that the cleaning person comes, and they call and the homeowners dead, and so forth. Alright. So they said that they cannot get a hold of anybody with standing in order to continue the death investigation, right. So I guess, like the cleaning person be a good example, like the cleaning person, generally speaking, cannot let you just search around the home, you know, during the decimal because they don't have a privacy interest in the home enough needed to allow you to have free rein of the house. So. So they want to, you know, they want to look to see if you know, if the depth is suspicious, if the suspect it natural causes, location prescription bottles, or a doctor's information to try to see what the health is, you know, if the person has been to a doctor within the last 30 days, and so forth. So the question is, does this require a warrant? And the general answer is no. Okay. So death investigations, if they're, if there's no foul play, and you're trying to determine the cause of death, and you are in your in the home lawfully, you know, generally speaking, these are not criminal investigations, you're basically playing corner, right, you're, you're basically playing corner, you know, you're trying to find out just like you said, medical issues prescription, you're trying to find the cause you're trying to help find the cause of death. And because that is not a criminal investigation, the US Supreme Court case in Mincy, versus Arizona has and apply. So Mincy is a stands for the proposition that if you are in a murder scene, right inside of a home, the murder itself, obviously a very serious crime, in and of itself is not going to allow you to search the residents for for evidence of the of the murder, without either a consent, or be a warrant, right? There is no murder scene exception to the search warrant requirement. But we don't have that here, you know, officers are in the home, and they're just trying to find the cause of death, there is no murder. Now, obviously, if, you know, you find evidence of foul play, well, then you, you need to you should I should say, because I'm gonna tell you another thing in a second here, you should go get a warrant. But also realize that if the, you know, there may not be at the end of the day, I mean, just just as just consider this, there may not be any standing by the person who's who ends up being the suspect. So, you know, if you have a murderer saying, Go get a warrant. But another thing that happens with these, these unattended deaths is that the people live alone? Well, let's say that some there's some foul play involved by like the neighbor, you know, or somebody else, a friend and so forth, who visits ends up, you know, poisoning the victim, well, does the friend or the neighbor have standing in order to challenge us the search that that that did occur without a warrant? And the answer is, most likely not unless they keep a bunch of stuff there, they have free rein to the house, like they've been given a key by the homeowner, and they can go and come and go as they please. They stay the night, frequently. But if that's not the case, which is mostly not the case, then they don't have any standing. So that's kind of where we're at here. Okay. So, you know, as a former law enforcement officer, I've been on plenty of, you know, unattended deaths. If they're, you know, I've been on both where they live alone, there's no warrant, we're going to get there because normally there's no foul play. We're just trying to merge. We're trying to confirm that, but there's no foul play. And also, you know, you have cases where even if they don't live alone, the other person that lives there is usually the one that they that called the police, right? So if they live there, and they're calling the police, don't forget that they are like, let's say it's the wife and her husband died. Don't forget that she likely gave you expressed or implied consent to come into the home. That's why she's calling the police. And if she's standing there, and she's, you know, sitting in the living room, and talking to the investigators and so forth, and not telling everybody get the hell out of their house,
that is also consent. It's part of the consent. She allowed you in. She's long you stay in there. So there's consent. And again, you wouldn't need a warrant if you had valid consent from somebody who could give it. Okay. All right. There's your role. So the takeaway here is that for unintended deaths, normally no warrant is needed as long as you're lawfully in the residence. And once you have evidence that there's foul play involved, timeout, go get a warrant. That's what I would say. All right, there's your answer. Hopefully, this helps. Look, if you like what I'm doing here, I'm gonna ask you to do a few things. Number one, hit the like button, hit the subscribe button. And finally, send these videos to your friends. I, you know, I'm trying to train every cop in America. That's what my goal is. It's not a big goal. It's a small goal, but that's what my goal is before I leave right before I'm out before you do the unattended death investigation on me, is I want to train you guys in search and seizure. Alright, until next time, my friends stay safe.
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