Also known as: lawful arrests · lawfully arrest · lawfully arrested · lawfully arresting · legal arrest · valid arrest
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An arrest effected by a peace officer or private person acting under legal authority that supplies probable cause or statutory justification. The arrest permits the use of reasonable force to effect or maintain custody and triggers recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement for searches of the arrestee and belongings.
Officer Lopez arrests Lance Lee on an outstanding warrant and transports him to the station. At booking, officers open Lee's backpack and discover drug paraphernalia. The discovery is admissible because the inventory search follows a lawful arrest and serves administrative needs unrelated to criminal investigation.
Officer Rivera attempts to handcuff Lila Lin after observing her sell narcotics. Lin pushes the officer and tries to flee. Rivera uses reasonable force to subdue her. Lin cannot claim self-defense because the officer is a public servant performing a lawful arrest under the governing limitation.
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An officer stops Luis Lopez on a hunch and learns of an unrelated valid arrest warrant. Drugs found during the ensuing arrest are admissible. The preexisting warrant constitutes an intervening circumstance that attenuates any taint from the initial stop.
An officer observes Laura Lewis pacing and peering into store windows late at night. After a brief investigative detention confirms reasonable suspicion, the officer develops probable cause and places Lewis under arrest. The subsequent search incident to arrest is valid because the arrest itself is lawful.
Landon Long kills a witness who can identify him in a robbery. The state charges capital murder and relies on the aggravating circumstance that the killing was committed to avoid a lawful arrest. The jury may consider this factor in deciding whether to impose the death penalty.
After a lawful arrest on federal charges, the defendant walks away from a courthouse holding area. Prosecutors charge escape from custody. The government must prove the defendant knew he was in custody pursuant to a lawful arrest when he departed.
No. The common-law rule provides that a person has no duty to retreat when the attack occurs while effecting a lawful arrest. This exception applies even in jurisdictions that otherwise require retreat before using deadly force.
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Force is justifiable when the actor believes it is immediately necessary to effect a lawful arrest. The belief must be held at the time force is used, and the arrest itself must be lawful.
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Yes when the warrant is preexisting and unconnected to the stop. The warrant acts as an intervening circumstance that, together with the absence of flagrant misconduct, attenuates the taint under the exclusionary rule.
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Yes. An inventory search of personal items in the arrestee's possession at the stationhouse is a recognized exception to the warrant requirement when conducted after a lawful arrest and prior to incarceration.
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No. The Model Penal Code prohibits the use of force in self-protection to resist an arrest the actor knows is being made by a peace officer, even if the arrest later proves unlawful.
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…or place of lawful confinement. "(10) The murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with, or preventing a lawful arrest or custody in a place of lawful confinement, of himself or another." § 27-2534.1 (b) (Supp. 1975). Having found an aggravating circumstance, however, the jury is not required to impose the…