{"id":368,"date":"2026-03-06T11:22:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/constitutionallawforcriminaljustice\/?page_id=368"},"modified":"2026-03-06T11:41:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:41:47","slug":"chapter-5-case-studies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/constitutionallawforcriminaljustice\/students\/chapter-5-case-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 5 Case Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tHome\n<\/span><\/div>\n\n

Chapter 5 Case Studies<\/h2><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Case Study 1<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Janie Smith headed up a criminal ring in Sometown. This ring had been responsible for the rise in drug-related activity and prostitution in the town, and yet because Smith ran a tight and efficient operation, police have no evidence tying her directly to any crimes. Every time the police thought they had gotten close to Janie, she slipped through their grasp; that is, until police caught up to Cynthia Stout. Police in Coppertown had caught Stout with enough cocaine to put her away for 20 years. However, Stout offered to give them Janie Smith in exchange for a lighter sentence, and so she began to work with the Sometown Police Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stout agreed to become a police informant and wear a state-of-the-art tiny video camera to her meetings with Smith about an upcoming drug shipment. The police planned to use the video to obtain an arrest warrant and charge Janie Smith with drug trafficking. Stout\u2019s meeting was to be held in the private offices of a local business owner who had ties to the underworld. Stout went to the meeting, and there Smith described how representatives of the ring planned to meet a truck that would come in to an abandoned warehouse along the Winding River, on the outskirts of Sometown. The truck would contain 20 kilos of cocaine, along with some marijuana. Smith instructed Stout to meet up with her associate after the drop was made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometown police used this information to intercept the drug shipment and then to arrest Janie Smith on drug trafficking charges as she was attempting to flee Sometown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1. The incriminating statements made by Janie Smith were spoken in a private office of a local business owner, a space protected by the Fourth Amendment. Why was the evidence allowed at Janie Smith\u2019s trial? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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