'Seizure' Only After Driver Obeyed Police Orders

A seizure does not occur until a suspect actually capitulates to a show of authority.

 

United States v. Stover, 2015 BL 416751, 4th Cir., No. 14-4283, 12/18/15

    A driver exited his truck and threw a pistol into the grass before he complied with the police officer's command to return to the vehicle. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that he abandoned the weapon before he was "seized" for purposes of the Fourth Amendment.

    The court indicated that a seizure does not occur until a suspect actually capitulates to a show of authority, and the defendant did not submit until he had already ditched the pistol. The court did not accept the defendant's argument that the pistol was the fruit of an illegal seizure because the police seized him without reasonable suspicion when they pulled up behind his truck, turned on their lights, and blocked him from driving away.

    The court hearkened to the ruling in California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621 (1991), which held that a police officer's "show of authority" does not, alone constitute a Fourth Amendment seizure unless and until the suspect submits. Here, the court rejected the proposition that anything short of headlong flight qualifies as submission and ruled that merely remaining at the scene does not qualify as submission.    

    The court stated that because the defendant gave no indication that he was submitting until after he discarded the pistol, he was not "seized" until he did indicate submission. "Only after he discarded that gun and was confronted by an armed police officer did Stover submit to police authority," the court said.