Brown v. State

A review of the convictions for storehouse breaking and larceny of the appellant, Willie Lee Brown, Jr., in the Circuit Court for Dorchester County by a jury, presided over by Judge C. Bumam Mace, poses squarely the question, “When is ‘open view’ not ‘Plain View’ ?”

The “Plain View Doctrine” is simply that it is constitutionally reasonable for the authorities to seize objects come upon by inadvertence during a valid prior intrusion.

The Emergence of a “Plain View” Doctrine

Although Justice Stewart’s references to a “plain view doctrine” seem to imply something of reasonably venerable lineage,…