United States v. Iverson

The Second Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction on five counts of drug and gun related offenses. The court held that the district court correctly determined that there was no unreasonable search in violation of the Fourth Amendment where the undisputed evidence showed that defendant expressly consented to the officers entering his apartment and the consent implicitly extended to the police dog; given that the officers and dog were lawfully in the apartment, defendant had no legitimate or reasonable expectation of privacy in airborne particles bearing odors; and thus the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion to suppress.The court also held that defendant's Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights to equal protection and trial by a jury was not violated where any procedural error in dismissing Juror No. 8 was harmless. In this case, given the district court's permissible finding that Juror No. 8 was unable to read or write, the conclusion that he was not qualified to serve as a juror was correct. Furthermore, had Juror No. 8 been fully vetted during voir dire, leading to his timely disqualification, the jury would have included just one black juror, as it eventually did. View "United States v. Iverson" on Justia Law