TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

Supreme Court Reverses Lower Court Decisions on Admissibility of Evidence from Probation Search

Posted by: Kate Prince on Nov 21, 2019

The Tennessee Supreme Court today reversed lower court decisions and ruled that evidence obtained in a probation search should not have been suppressed. The ruling comes after a warrantless search of defendant Angela Hamm’s home resulted in the arrest and joint indictment of Hamm and her husband. Officers found pills, glass pipes, methamphetamine and scales in their home. Hamm was on supervised probation after she was convicted of manufacturing a controlled substance, and the search was conducted based on her probation status. A trial court had granted the defendants’ motion to suppress evidence obtained from a warrantless search and dismissed the indictments, a decision later affirmed by the Court of Criminal Appeals. The Supreme Court held that probation search conditions do not require law enforcement to have reasonable suspicion, ruling that the search was constitutionally reasonable and permissible pursuant to the doctrine of common authority. Justice Cornelia A. Clark and Justice Sharon G. Lee filed separate dissenting opinions in the case.

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