Bumper v. North Carolina

391 U.S. 543 (1968)

Facts

D lived with his grandmother, a 66-year-old Negro widow, in a house located in a rural area at the end of an isolated mile-long dirt road. Two days after the alleged offense but prior to D's arrest, four white law enforcement officers went to this house and found the grandmother there with some young children. She met the officers at the front door. One of them announced, 'I have a search warrant to search your house.' She responded, 'Go ahead,' and opened the door. In the kitchen, the officers found the rifle that was later introduced in evidence at D's trial after a motion to suppress had been denied. At the motion to suppress, the prosecutor informed the court that he did not rely upon a warrant to justify the search, but upon the consent of the grandmother. The grandmother testified that the officer never read her the warrant or even showed it to her. D was convicted and appealed from affirmations of that conviction.