As a follow-up to my recent posts on illegal “investigatory holds” and “domestic violence holds”, I recent law review article provides additional support from a federal constitutional perspective to my argument; its entitled: The First 48: Ending the Use of Categorically Unconstitutional Investigative Holds in Violation of County of Riverside v. McLaughlin
The article cites
Under [Riverside v. McLaughlin, 500 U.S. 44, 47 (1991)], if the government does not afford a warrantless arrestee a judicial determination of probable cause (known as a ‘Gerstein hearing’) within the first forty-eight hours of his or her arrest, then the government bears the burden of proving that ‘a bona fide emergency or other extraordinary circumstance’ justified the delay. . . Specifically, the McLaughlin Court identified: ‘[1] delays for the purpose of gathering additional evidence to justify the arrest, [2] a delay motivated by ill will against the arrested individual, or [3] delay for delay’s sake” as “[e]xamples of unreasonable delay[s]” that violate the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable seizures under all circumstances.
For purposes of Alabama investigative holds, the article cites:
In United States v. Davis, 174 F.3d 941, 944 (8th Cir. 1999)., for example, the Eighth Circuit held that even assuming that probable cause existed to arrest a defendant, a mere two-hour delay in the defendant’s Gerstein hearing was still unreasonable where the sole purpose of the delay was to promote further investigation by law enforcement.
