A husband and wife owned a home in rural Kentucky. The wife was a homemaker and would do all of the housekeeping and laundry

She often placed clean clothes in her husband's drawers and they both shared one closet. One day, police knocked on the door and asked for consent to search the home for marijuana. The wife, secure in the fact that she had nothing to hide, said yes. Her husband was in the bedroom and unequivocally refused consent to search. The police conducted the search based on the wife's consent and discovered a cache of automatic weapons that had obviously been altered to increase their shooting range in violation of federal law. The husband was charged with federal gun offenses and moved to suppress the guns on the basis that his wife's consent did not override his refusal. If you were the judge, how would you decide the case? Be sure to discuss all applicable legal issues necessary to properly decide the case.
What will be an ideal response?


ANSWER: Answers may vary: Based on a fact pattern similar to Randolph v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court found in the husband's favor since he was on the scene and explicitly refusing. The better question might be, what happens if the husband is not on the scene, is the wife's consent to search common spaces in the home legal - yes.

Criminal Justice

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