Parking in Front of Suspected Drug House Was Reasonable Suspicion to Detain

U.S. v. Carter, 2006 WL 787807 (3/29/06)(unpub'd) - Officers had reasonable suspicion to detain the defendant in the following circumstances: the defendant was parked in a high crime area in front of a suspected drug house; police had found drugs in the house two weeks before; over the years, police had discovered drugs on people who had come from the house; a CI had purchased drugs from that house once; and a female passenger in the back-seat of the defendant's car went to the front door two or three times, stayed for less than a minute and returned to the car; due to the lighting conditions, the officers could not tell if she had any contact with anyone in the house. The 10th's entire reasoning is as follows: "Without belaboring the point, we agree with the d.ct. that the officers had reasonable suspicion."

It was okay to instruct the jurors they could not consider the lesser included offense instruction unless they unanimously agreed the defendant was not guilty of the greater offense. It didn't matter that the 10th's proposed instruction on the matter allows jurors to consider the lesser offense where the jurors cannot agree on the greater after all reasonable efforts. The 10th's proposed instructions are just suggestions. They're not binding.