Criminal attorneys

Thursday, May 13, 2010

What Are Warrants?

Much of the population has learned about warrants only from watching police dramas on television. This gives people an image of warrants forcefully being served by yelling officers kicking down doors and tearing through homes and personal spaces looking for evidence. In some cases, this may actually not be far from the truth. There is much more to the legal entity that is a warrant, though, and it can be helpful to understand them. This is particularly true if you are worried that there may be one in your name.

By definition, a warrant is an authorization for a "competent officer" to perform an action that violates an individual's rights and might otherwise be illegal. Referring to the example above, a police officer could not generally walk into a home and drag a person out to take them to jail. If there is an arrest warrant out for that person, though, their individual rights are sacrificed and the officer's actions become legally acceptable. Courts are generally responsible for issuing warrants, while sheriffs, constables, and police officers tend to be responsible for carrying them out. The three types regularly issued by courts are search warrants, arrest warrants, and execution warrants.

Search warrants give law enforcement the right to search a property or individual for evidence of an offense. They may also seize relevant items and save them for use in court. The fourth amendment to the US Constitution affords that warrants must be "reasonable and specific," meaning that the place and subjects of the warrant must be well defined to make the search legal.

Arrest warrants are issued on behalf of the state. They allow for a person to be arrested and placed in detention. In the United States, it must be paired with an affidavit showing probable cause that a crime has been committed by the person named on the warrant.

Execution warrants give authorization for a death sentence to be executed. These occur after a person convicted of a crime has been sentenced to death and are designed to protect the executioner from being charged with murder.

When a warrant is made in an individual's name, it explicitly compromises some of the rights that are generally afforded to them under the law. This inherently creates a situation in which the counsel of an experienced legal professional becomes very important.

For more information about warrants, visit the website of Appleton criminal defense attorneys Habush Habush & Rottier, S.C.



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