Rochin v. California
|
|
In Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165 (1952) the United States Supreme Court overturned a drug possession conviction which had been obtained after police had ordered the defendant's stomach pumped to recover swallowed capsules containing morphine. These capsules were admitted into evidence against him.
The court overturned the decision, 8-0, with one abstention. Justice Frankfurter wrote the court's opinion, which included the phrase "shocks the conscience", a phrase now associated with tests of "substantive due process" claims. Frankfurter wrote that the evidence had been recovered by methods that violated the Fourteenth Amendment, depriving the defendant of due process.
Concurring opinions by Justices Black and Douglas held that the conduct of the police and the admission of the capsules into evidence had also violated the defendant's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
External links
Full text of the decision courtesy of Findlaw.com (http://laws.findlaw.com/us/342/165.html)