Opinion ID: 1772034
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: thereto?

Text: This assignment relates to test results of the male rape kit introduced into evidence over defense objection. Burnside points out that in Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 16 L.Ed.2d 908 (1966), an intrusion into the body was found to be subject to the Fourth Amendment restrictions against unreasonable searches and seizures. Although the Court in Schmerber made the finding that a warrantless search and seizure by taking of a blood sample was proper under exigent circumstances, the court made it clear that its holding was limited to the facts of that case. The Schmerber opinion considered the taking of a blood sample as a violation of several constitutional challenges. The Court held, regarding the Fourth Amendment rights to unreasonable searches and seizures, that: ... [T]he Fourth Amendment's proper function is to constrain, not against all intrusions as such, but against intrusions which are not justified in the circumstances, or which are made in an improper manner. In other words, the questions we must decide in this case are whether the police were justified in requiring petitioner to submit to the blood test, and whether the means and procedures employed in taking his blood respected relevant Fourth Amendment standards of reasonableness. A lady at the hospital asked him to sign a form and Burnside voluntarily signed the following waiver: On this the 6th day of March, 1986, I, Loyce Edward Burnside, do voluntarily give my permission to have a doctor at the King's Daughters Hospital in Yazoo City obtain from my body any and all samples needed to prepare a male rape kit. Knowing that these samples will be turned over to the Yazoo City Police Department for examination in a rape case. I, Loyce Edward Burnside, do this without any persuasion of any kind. Additionally, the defendant suggests no unfairness in this procedure. Therefore, this Court holds that the waiver was sufficient and that the court was correct in the admission of the blood test results. The court rejects this assignment.