Q: Search warrant
My friend took a 15 year prison plea deal believing that the police had a warrant to find the ''evidence'' in his phone. He never seen the warrant and now that he's in prison he decided to review his discovery. I been helping from out here. The warrant was not included in the discovery package he received. He had a private attorney and public defender both are telling me they don't have a copy of the warrant. The private attorney doesn't remember ever seeing one and the PD says he never saw one. So no help there. I messaged the clerk of courts, the arresting agency and wrote back that they have no search warrant on record. But in a affidavit the detective said there was a search warrant issued to search the cell phone. Well where is it??? Where else can I look? Should it be this hard to find the warrant? Or maybe the police lied?
A: Your friend needs to consider post conviction relief if the lack of a search warrant was a significant aspect of the case. Keep in mind that the case might have been prosecutable for other reasons, or the police may claim he consented to the search. To your question, maybe there's a search warrant and maybe not. The police can't make up a search warrant in order to conduct the phone search, but the police can make up other facts and stories. You would really need all the available evidence before considering whether someone "lied". As I said the US Supreme Court says police can make up stories- at least up to a point. your friend needs to consult a post conviction attorney.
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