On February 19, C-SPAN Radio continues a week-long special series of Supreme Court historic oral arguments previewing key pending cases on the taking of DNA samples from criminal suspects---“Maryland v. King”---and on the constitutionality of parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965---“Shelby County, Alabama v. Attorney General Eric Holder.”
In this program, a case cited in briefs for “Maryland v. King.” From 2006: “Donald Samson v. the state of California.” A police officer stopped and searched Donald Samson on the street in San Bruno, California. The officer had no warrant and later admitted he had stopped Mr. Samson only because he knew him to be on parole. The officer found that Donald Samson was in possession of methamphetamines. He was arrested and charged with drug possession in state court. At trial, attorneys for Donald Samson argued the drugs were inadmissible as evidence, because the search had violated his Fourth Amendment rights. The trial court denied the motion and the State Supreme Court declined to hear the case. It was eventually accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The audio and information of the cases are courtesy of the Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law at: http://www.oyez.org.
“Samson v. California”, previewing a February 26 SCOTUS argument on taking DNA samples from criminal suspects: Tuesday, February 19 at 8pm ET on C-SPAN Radio: 90.1 FM in the Washington, DC area, online at cspanradio.org and nationwide on XM Satellite Radio, channel 119.