Eleventh Circuit Activity

United States v. Smith

Opinion Date: July 23, 2012

Areas of Law: Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

Defendant Daniel Anthony Smith entered a conditional guilty plea to receiving and attempting to distribute child pornography. Exercising his preserved right to appeal, Defendant sought review of the district court's denial of his motion to suppress inculpatory physical and testimonial evidence. He contended on appeal to the Eleventh Circuit, as he did in the district court, that the officers' warrantless and uninvited entry into his house violated the Fourth Amendment and that the evidence that the officers gathered after that entry should be suppressed under the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine. "Even assuming that the officers' initial entry into Mr. Smith's home violated the Fourth Amendment, suppression is unwarranted because Mr. Smith's later consent was not tainted by the entry." The Eleventh Circuit therefore affirmed the judgment of the district court and Defendant's conviction. 

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