Mapp+v.+Ohio



1. Case title

__Dollree Mapp v. State of Ohio__

2. Date of hearing

Argued: March 29, 1961 Decided: June 19, 1961

3. Chief Justice: Earl Warren- Was born on March 19, 1891 and he died July 9, 1974 and he was the Governor of California and the 14th Chief Justice of the US. He graduated The University of California, Berkley in 1912 for his Bachelor of Art degree and in 1914 he got his Bachelor of Law degree from Boalt Hall. He wanted to oppose corruption and promote democracy and he was influenced by Hiram Johnson and other leaders of the Progressive Era. He had cases that ended school segregation and changed many areas of American law, like the right of the accused and public school sponsored prayer. **who appointed him CJ?**



4. Amendments to the __constitution__ relevant to the case:

4th: This is prohibition from unreasonable searches and seizures

5th: that deals with the rights of accused criminals by providing for due process of law, forbidding double jeopardy, and stating that no person may be forced to testify as a witness against himself or herself.

14th: an amendment to the U.S. __constitution__, ratified in 1868, defining national citizenship and forbidding the states to restrict the basic rights of citizens or other persons; it also said every one has equal protection under law. Gave blacks full citizenship.

5. Summary of the Case: Dollree Mapp was suspected to have hid a bombing fugitive so the police tried to search her house without a search warrant to find that bomb fugitive. They found a small collection of porn in her basement in her trunk and they arrested her for that because it violated Ohio Law which prohibited the possession of obscene materials. They did not find the bombing fugitive. **What kind of appeals did Mapp make?**

=== 6. Main Issue:  Mapp's arguement: Dolree Mapp felt her home was searched illegally by Ohio officers because they had no search warrant to do so (a direct violation of the 4th Amendment). Because of that, Mapp felt she shouldn't have been arrested in the first place. Officers argument: The officers thought she was housing a fugitive and wanted to search her home. She was being resistant so they had removed her from her house, then found pornographic material in her basement (which violated an Ohio law). ===

7. Decision: The Supreme Court reversed Mapp's conviction in a 6-3 vote and the __court__ stated that the state cannot use evidence gained by illegal means to convict.

8. Who voted what, dissenting, and why? 9. Who were members of the court at that time and how long on the court? **Earl Warren- October 5, 1953- June 23, 1969** **Hugo Black- August 18, 1937- September 17, 1971** **Felix Frankfurter- January 20, 1939- August 28, 1962** **William Douglas- April 15, 1939- November 12, 1975** **Tom Clark- June 19,1949- June 12,1967** **John Marshall Harlan II- March 17, 1955- September 23,1971** **William Brennan, Jr.- October 15, 1956- July 20, 1990** **Charles Evans Whittaker- March 22, 1957- March 31,1962** **Potter Stewart- October 14, 1958- July 3, 1981** 10. What is your personal opinion of the case? **We believe that the case was fairly decided because the police did not have a search warrant so they shouldn't have convicted Mapp in the first place. This shows that the Supreme Court is following the law very closely and not making a person guilty because of their race. Also, it was no point for the police to suspect she was harboring the bombing fugitive because they didn't find that fugitive in the end. What gave the police the idea that the suspect would be in her house? ** 11. What if this case had gone the other way? If the case would have gone the other way there would of probably been a lot of people against the result. The people would be arguing because they found the evidence illegitimately, they did not have a warrant in the first place to search Mapp's house for the suspected bomb fugitive. So people would also argue that the reason that Mapp was found guilty would be because she is African American. This would of became a huge mess because people would say if it was a white person would they have done the same?
 * Clark, Black, Douglas, Stewart, Brennan, and Warren voted for Mapp because they said the evidence was obtained was in violation of the Constitution because it was obtained through illegal searches and seizures. They also said no man should be convicted on unconstitutional evidence. Harlan, Frankfurter, and Whittaker dissented because they felt the wrong question had been brought up and they believed the issue had not been properly briefed. **** Elaborate -- what does this mean??? **

This is a cartoon of Mapp's house getting searched by the police and her talking in Court.

Bibliography "Mapp v. Ohio (1961)." //Infoplease: Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free Online Reference, Research & Homework Help. — Infoplease.com//. Pearson Education, 2005. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. .

"Mapp v. Ohio." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, 11 Feb. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. [].

**5.5/7 Biblio -- where are the websites for the photos and the cartoon?** **24/28 Content -- decent job on a tough case - could use more analysis in spots.** **4/5 Organization -- watch out for capitalization problems**

**33.5/40 Total**