Verified Document

Michigan Vs. Tyler, The Supreme Court Decided Term Paper

¶ … Michigan vs. Tyler, the Supreme Court decided that "fire fighters, and/or police and arson investigators, may seize arson evidence at a fire without warrant or consent, on the basis of exigent circumstances and/or plain view" This may only occur during the extinguishing operations or immediately after, otherwise a warrant or the owner's consent is necessary. This came as a response to an accusation of "conspiracy to burn real property," where the prosecutors had collected and used evidence of numerous days after the firefighting operations. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendant, as evidence was collected without warrant in the subsequent days.

I think the process used by a gas chromatograph (heating, etc.) is not appropriate for separating sand granules and the gas chromatograph cannot identify sand grains as a substance. In my opinion, something like filtration should have been used to separate sand from the rest of the substance, then the gas chromatograph procedure could have been applied.

3. As a definition, identity theft refers to "wrongfully obtaining and using another person's personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain"

. This involves anything from stealing and using someone's credit card or social security number to stealing the other person's entire identity and doing deeds in his or her name. With the technological improvements and the Internet, identity fraud has become more often nowadays and more difficult to trace and prevent. As such, new forms of forensics, such as computer forensics, are tackling this issue.

4. In my opinion, Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism testing is nowadays somewhat outdated and we cannot actually believe that the methodology is more performing and more reliable than the Polymerase Chain Reaction using Short Tandem Repeat markers (PCR-STR) that is presently being used. However, in order to ensure that DNA testing produces the most reliable results, some regulations should be used. For example,...

Approximate blood alcohol percentage related to body weight tables show that a 0.17% value to 160 lb is equal to approximately 7 beers or approximately 6 4-ounce glasses of wine. According to the same sources, a person having this alcohol concentration is "legally intoxicated."
6. There are two things we need to analyze. The first refers to the effect of the alcohol quantity that has been discovered and the second to the legality of drawing blood. According to the analytical statistics, a 0.34% alcohol concentration is equivalent to being "in a drunken stupor." Indeed, many publications admit this classification and rate over or around 0.3% blood alcohol level as such.

According to several websites, the laws regulating the conditions in which a blood test may be taken vary from state to state, with guidelines ranging from excellent in Florida to poor in Georgia

. As we are not informed on the provenience of the person in question here, we can only make assumptions. For example, in several states, refusing to take a blood test is a criminal offense. If we are in such a situation here, then the blood test evidence is admissible, even if taken without consent. Then, there is the "implied consent" concept, which stipulates that "by driving your car on the public roadways, you agree to take "chemical tests," such as a blood, breath or urine test, if you are arrested as an impaired driver"

7. The first idea would be to suspect suicide. However, first of all a thorough investigation of the gun is required. This includes fingerprints (only the victim's or are there other foreign ones?) and the gun's barrel, in order to discover when the shot was fired (does it correspond to the time of death otherwise determined?). One of the most important questions refers, in my opinion, to the wound. Why is there no exit wound? Would this be an indication of a shot from short distance (hence, suicide may be plausible) or a long distance…

Sources used in this document:
Bibliography

1. Ramsland, Katherine. Trace Evidence. On the Internet at http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/trace/1.html?sect=21

2. Pierce, Dwain A. Focus on Forensics: Latent Shoeprint Analysis. On the Internet at http://www.totse.com/en/law/justice_for_all/latshoe.html

3. Expert Law. On the Internet at http://www.expertlaw.com/library/pubarticles/Criminal/Drunk_Blood_Alcohol.html#Q16

4. http://www.health.org/nongovpubs/bac-chart/
5. http://www.drunkdrivingdefense.com/general/blood-tests.htm
6. MICHIGAN v. TYLER U.S. Supreme Court May 31, 1978 436 U.S. 499. On the Internet at http://www.accesskansas.org/kbi/PDF/court/RCD19780531.pdf
7. Identity Theft and Fraud. On the Internet at http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.html
MICHIGAN v. TYLER U.S. Supreme Court May 31, 1978 436 U.S. 499. On the Internet at http://www.accesskansas.org/kbi/PDF/court/RCD19780531.pdf
Identity Theft and Fraud. On the Internet at http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.html
http://www.health.org/nongovpubs/bac-chart/
On the Internet at http://www.drunkdrivingdefense.com/general/blood-tests.htm
Expert Law. On the Internet at http://www.expertlaw.com/library/pubarticles/Criminal/Drunk_Blood_Alcohol.html#Q16
Pierce, Dwain A. Focus on Forensics: Latent Shoeprint Analysis. On the Internet at http://www.totse.com/en/law/justice_for_all/latshoe.html
Ramsland, Katherine. Trace Evidence. On the Internet at http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/trace/1.html?sect=21
Pierce, Dwain A. Focus on Forensics: Latent Shoeprint Analysis. On the Internet at http://www.totse.com/en/law/justice_for_all/latshoe.html
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Arson Is a Fire Purposely
Words: 2728 Length: 10 Document Type: Research Paper

Such determination is the goal of any arson investigation. The advantages of accurate and thorough fire investigations should be obvious. All fifty states statutorily allow public investigations of all fires in an effort to determine their origins and causes. This process, however, is not without complications and, too often, the cause and origin are left as unresolved and identified as undetermined causes. Some fires are the result of complex events whose

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now