On Wednesday, October 21, the Connecticut Appellate Court (a branch of the Connecticut Supreme Court), made it’s way to Fairfield University. At the Kelly Theatre at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, the criminal case of State v. Solomon Boyd was heard at 10 a.m. The Court’s appearance at Fairfield University is part of “Supreme Court on Circuit”, an educational program that is part of the Connecticut Judicial Branch.
The criminal trial of State v. Solomon Boyd debated where records from the defendant’s cell phone should have been regarded or suppressed, and whether the evidence was properly attained by New York police and subsequently observed by Norwalk police.
The public defender for Solomon Boyd explained that to argue that the jurisprudence of the warrant to search the apartment, persons’, and persons’ therein (meaning the possessions of the person) does not make what the police did justified, because the cell phone was not directly with Mr. Boyd at the time it was obtained as evidence. She explained that the protections in Connecticut are meaningless if outside the state, they aren’t going to be upheld.
The representative attorney of the State of Connecticut argued that it should be “expected that the warrant would be looked at with practicality and common sense”. The defendant, Solomon Boyd, never expressed an expectation of privacy with his cell phone, and all evidence pointed that his cell phone was used in his drug business.
After both parties presented their arguments, the court took a recess and there was an opportunity for the audience to ask questions to both attorneys.
Professor of Politics at Fairfield University, Dr. Donald Greenberg stated that he believed the event “gave the public an opportunity to see how appellate courts function and the question and answer period following the arguments were very helpful and informative”.
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