96 Md. App. 46 - Bell v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Although an argument might someday be made for extending a search such as this based upon some almost Newtonian proposition that the discovery of some contraband suggests the likely presence of more contraband yet to be discovered, it is enough to note that no such argument was made by the State in this case, either at the suppression hearing or before us.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Bell · 193 Md. App. 687 - Epps v. State

2. ““At approximately 5:30 P.M. on May 15,1991, Officers Mark Daugherty, William Brown, and Attlay Williams were driving an unmarked car in the vicinity of Woodland and Homer Avenues in Baltimore City. The officers described the neighborhood as a high crime area generally and an area known for heavy narcotics activity specifically. The officers observed a group of four or five young men, the appellant among them, ‘scatter’ at the approach of the three strangers. The appellant walked away from the rest of the group and approached the passenger door of a ‘red Chevy Geo.’ According to Officer Daugherty, the appellant made ‘a hand movement as [if he were] placing something in the vehicle.’ He then shut the car door and dropped a plastic bag next to the car. The officers did not immediately move in on the appellant or any of the other members of the group. They continued to patrol the general area and, approximately ten minutes later, returned to the intersection of Woodland and Homer Avenues. Upon their return, the appellant was standing next to the open passenger door of the red Chevy Geo. At the approach of the ‘strangers,’ he closed the door and dropped what appeared to be ‘a vial, a white object’ into the three-inch window opening. At that point, the three officers got out of their automobile and placed the appellant under arrest. A search of his person revealed a ‘black diamond watch’ and a beeper. The police testimony itself revealed that their focus on the automobile was inves”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Bell

3. ““What followed that limited seizure [of the single vial] was beyond the permitted scope of this particular ‘automobile exception’ entry. The permitted scope of a Carroll doctrine search, of course, is whatever is necessary to serve the purpose of that particular search. The only probable cause asserted by the police was probable cause to believe that the single vial observed lying on the floor in front of the passenger seat contained contraband narcotics. Accordingly, the automobile was warrantlessly entered and that vial was retrieved. At that point, the entire purpose that justified the warrantless entry in the first place had been fulfilled. The police obligation, therefore, was to terminate the search, its purpose already having been fully served. The Carroll doctrine does not permit further and gratuitous rummaging about. As was explained in R. Gilbert & C. Moylan, Criminal Law: Practice and Procedure 333 (1983): ‘If there is probable cause to believe that an automobile contains stolen truck tires (coupled with the attendant exigency), then the police may stop the automobile in question and search it warrantlessly under the Carroll doctrine. Once they have found the stolen truck tires, however, it is incumbent upon them to terminate — to get out. Any further search would be exploratory in nature and would be more than was necessary to serve the purpose that triggered the initial entry into the automobile.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Bell