OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITY
Criminal Procedure
Mr. French
Summer Semester 2008
Exam No. __________
Final Exam
Page 1
DIRECTIONS
1. Place your Examination Number on each page of this examination.
2. You must include this Examination via e-mail, but your answer may be an attachment.
Please send your exam to Peggy Cain at p-cain@onu.edu no later than 1:00 p.m.
3. Do not respond to any question in such a manner so as to identify yourself.
4. This final examination is worth 100 points. Each question is worth 20 points.
5. You have 4 hours to complete this examination. Please budget your time. You must also
sign the separate statement.
6. You are reminded that other students in this course may be taking the examination at
some other time. Therefore, you must not discuss the contents of this examination in the
presence of others. The provisions of the Honor Code apply as well, e.g., that you have
neither given nor received unauthorized assistance from any source.
7. Do not launch into a general essay on criminal procedure. Problem solving is the task at
hand, not the display of encyclopedic knowledge. Do not discuss legal doctrine not
relevant to this matter to show your general knowledge of the course. Do not skirt or
avoid an issue just because you are uncertain of the correct answer. Even if your answer
is incorrect, you will receive credit for issue recognition. Do not attempt to hide your
reasoning processes. Disclose your analysis to me.
8. This is a closed book examination.
Criminal Procedure
Mr. French
Summer Semester 2008
Exam No. __________
Final Exam
Page 2
I
Write about two incidents described in Courtroom 302 wherein you believe the Judge engaged in
the most egregious and unprincipled behavior. Describe, in your opinion, what the “right”
answer was to correct his error.
II
Write a Miranda-like Rule, citing cases from which you have drawn your “rule,” which a police
officer should give to a person whom the officer observes through an open blind tending his
marijuana plants.
III
Should a motion to suppress be granted:
In response to a complaint of loud noise, two deputy sheriffs approach a duplex house.
Knocking at the door resulted in no response, given the loud noise of the music. When an
occupant did finally open the door and see the deputies, he ran inside yelling “this is not my
house” and rushing to an interior bedroom. At a suppression hearing, the officers testified that
they believed that the person might be a burglar or that he was rushing to get a gun. As he was
running to the bedroom, he grabbed a bag from a pregnant woman in the living room and hid.
The bag was determined to be cocaine.
The occupant is Mirandized and then charged with possession of a controlled substance.
IV
Following a complaint of sexual battery, officers go to the residence of the accused to question
him. The accused does not open the door initially, but does upon repeated knocking. The
accused invites the officers in. He is asked about the alleged incident while sitting on his couch;
is not handcuffed; and freely wanders about his house. No guns have been drawn.
He denied the facts of the incident. He did agree, however, that he was in the house with the
accused but did not touch her. A written statement was taken and signed and the officers
departed.
Shortly thereafter, he is invited to the police station to expand upon his statement. He voluntarily
goes.
Criminal Procedure
Mr. French
Summer Semester 2008
Exam No. __________
Final Exam
Page 3
He changes some of the details given in his written statement. The interview at the police station
is videotaped. The accused inquires if he needs a lawyer and the police officer says that he
cannot give legal advice.
Should his two statements and the videotape, or some part of them, be suppressed?
V
Police officers have under surveillance in a rural area a house where they believe unlawful drugs
are being manufactured. The house was empty as dusk approaches, and the officers observe a
car with the driver and its passenger.
The two women from the car enter the house.
Lights go on and no one else is seen in the house or entering the house.
Without a warrant, the police enter the house to seize the manufacturing equipment. Marijuana
in plain view is seized. A protective sweep of the house turns up automatic weapons associated
with a drug manufacturing facility.
Is the initial entrance lawful?
Whether or not you believe the entrance is lawful, assume for the second part of this question,
that the entrance is lawful. Would the protective sweep be lawful under the facts presented?
*****
You have four hours to complete this examination and e-mail it to Peggy at p-cain@onu.edu.
Use only your Examination Number on this exam when it is turned in.
Turn in the attached statement as a hard copy to Peggy in her office by 4:00 p.m., or mail it to
Professor Bruce Comly French, P.O. Box 839, Lima, OH 45802 by the close of business July 25,
2008.
Your paper on the criminal court observations is due to Peggy or Professor French in the manner
outlined above by the close of business July 25, 2008.
Criminal Procedure
Mr. French
Summer Semester 2008
I, ________________________, certify that I have complied with the instructions
(Given Name)
given in this examination.
________________________________________
(Given Name)