Police obtained some human bones that a private contractor found in a farmer's manure pile that the contractor had been hired to spread over the farm field

Question

The defendant had been purchasing the farm field from another farmer, but at some point had abandoned the farm field containing the manure pile. The contractor called the police about the bones. An officer observed the bone site, but obtained a search warrant before removing the evidence. The bones turned out to be the jaw bone of the farmer's missing wife and he was convicted of her murder. On appeal, the defendant contended that his Fourth Amendment rights had been violated by the police entry on his farm field. On these facts, the bone evidence
A) must be excluded from use against the farmer at his murder trial because the police officer did not obtain a warrant before entering the framer's land.
B) must be excluded from evidence because the police violated the farmer's Fourth Amendment rights when the officer entered the farmer's field the first time without any warrant whatsoever.
C) should be admissible against the farmer if he had abandoned the farm field that he was earlier trying to purchase because he would not have any expectation of privacy in an abandoned farm field.
D) should be admissible against the farmer because the bones were found under the open fields doctrine.
E) either the theory under answer C or the theory under answer D should permit the admission of the bone evidence against the farmer-defendant.

Answer 1

E