THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEALS STUDENT PROJECT: A SURVEY OF RECENT CASE LAW: The Exigent Circumstance Exception To the Warrant Requirement of the Fourth Amendment: What Criteria Must Be Met?

Central to the fourth amendment's 1 protection against unreasonable searches and seizures is the warrant requirement. This requirement mandates that "searches conducted outside the judicial process, without prior approval by judge or magistrate, are per se unreasonable" 2 unless they fit into one of the six recognized exceptions. 3 The exigent circumstance exception 4 is one such exception to the warrant clause of the fourth amendment. 5 Exigent circumstances encompass the need for an immediate search; 6 instances which require an officer to act to avoid loss of evidence; 7 and when there is a "need to protect or preserve human life or avoid serious injury." 8 Generally, whether or not sufficient exigent circumstances exist to justify seizure of evidence without a warrant is determined on a case-by-case basis. 9 Prior to the emergence of the exigent circumstance exception, as well as the other exceptions, a warrantless search was automatically deemed unconstitutional. 10 A valid search warrant had to be secured from a neutral judge or magistrate, 11 who first had to determine whether probable cause existed based upon an evaluation of the relevant facts presented by the police officer. 12 While the Supreme Court held warrantless searches unconstitutional and sometimes intimated that a warrantless search of premises for evidence could never be justified under the fourth amendment, it nevertheless, "alluded at times to the possibility that such a search would be upheld upon a showing of genuine exigent circumstances." 13 This article will first examine the ...