California Court of Appeal

Conviction of defendant for a 1991 second degree murder and a jury's finding that he used a knife to commit the crime is affirmed as a cigarette butt that defendant voluntarily discarded by tossing it onto a public sidewalk, which was then collected and DNA-tested by law enforcement only to identify defendant as a suspect in an ongoing criminal investigation, did not constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment to the federal Constitution, and defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in this discarded item.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/22/2010
• Published 11/22/2010

Judges

• BUTZ

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Ralph H. Goldsen, Edmund G. Brown, Jr.