Smith v. Maryland

442 U.S. 735 (1979)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

McDonough, was robbed. She described her assailant and his getaway car to police. After the robbery, she began to receive threatening and obscene calls from someone identifying himself as the robber. During one call, the caller asked her to step out onto her front porch, and she saw the getaway car of her robber on the street. At another time, the police spotted a man fitting the robber's description driving the same getaway car in McDonough's neighborhood. Police traced the license plate to Michael Lee Smith (D). The police went to the telephone company and placed a pen register on the line from the telephones in defendant's home. The pen register revealed that Smith continued to make calls to McDonough's number. The police got a warrant to search Smith's residence, and there they found a phone book with a marking indicating the page where McDonough's phone number was located. Based on the evidence from the pen register and the search, Smith was convicted.