Mercer v. State

Summary

The Oregon Court of Appeals reviewed a pretrial order requiring the state to return items seized under a search warrant. The court held that the warrant and its attachments described the property with sufficient particularity to enable an officer to identify it with reasonable effort, and it reversed and remanded; it also noted that contraband marijuana plants were not returnable.

Holdings

1. The warrant and its attachments sufficiently and definitely described the property because an executing police officer could distinguish it from neighboring property and locate it with reasonable effort.
2. The marijuana plants were not returnable because they were contraband.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the search warrant and its attachments particularly and definitely described the premises to be searched under the Fourth Amendment, Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution, and ORS 133.565(2)(b).
2. Whether the seized marijuana plants were returnable under ORS 133.633 when they constituted contraband.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded