39 Md. App. 484 - Humphrey v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The word ‘automobile’ is not a talisman in whose presence the Fourth Amendment fades away and disappears. And surely there is nothing in this case to invoke the meaning and purpose of the rule of Carroll v. United States—no alerted criminal bent on flight, no fleeting opportunity on an open highway after a hazardous chase, no contraband or stolen goods or weapons, no confederates waiting to move the evidence, not even the inconvenience of a special police detail to guard the immobilized automobile. In short, by no possible stretch of the legal imagination can this be made into a case where ‘it is not practicable to secure a warrant’, Carroll, supra, at 153 [45 S.Ct. at 285 ], and the ‘automobile exception,’ despite its label, is simply irrelevant.” Under circumstances such as these when there is no apparent risk that a delay in the search would raise the possibility of destruction or removal of the evidence, it is incumbent that the police first obtain a search warrant, as mandated by the fourth amendment, before a search of the vehicle can be conducted. The individual rights safeguarded by the requirement that a search warrant be issued by a neutral, detached magistrate prior to search far outweigh the inconvenience incurred by having the police guard the vehicle for a short period of time when, as here, such action could have prevented its removal.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 111 Md. App. 456 - Jones v. State

2. “What we mean, therefore, when we say that we have the obligation to make an independent, reflective constitutional judgment on the facts whenever a claim of a constitutionally-protected right is involved is that, although we give great weight to the findings of the hearing judge as to specific, first-level facts (such as the time that an interrogation began, whether a meal was or was not served, whether a telephone call was requested, etc.) we must make our own independent judgment as to what to make of those facts; we must, in making that independent judgment, resolve for ourselves the ultimate, second-level fact — the existence or non-existence of voluntariness.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 72 Md. App. 82 - Millwood v. State

3. “"Mrs. Humphrey testified that she allowed the search to take place nonetheless because she did not believe that they would uncover any incriminating evidence. Thus, it appears that Mrs. Humphrey’s willingness to allow the warrantless search to take place was basically a tactical decision calculated 'to turn suspicion away from [her husband] ... by appearing to give the authorities innocent and wholehearted cooperation.’ ” (citation omitted)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 52 Md. App. 664 - Ward v. State